madkins
Registered
Bloomberg.com
February 8, 2005
`Dolly' Creator Gets Approval in U.K. to Clone Human Embryos
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The scientist who cloned ``Dolly'' the sheep in 1996 today was granted the second British license to clone human embryos for medical research, the U.K.'s Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority said.
Professor Ian Wilmut of the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh and a team at King's College in London will grow embryos with motor neuron disease to study the development of the condition, which kills cells in the spinal cord and brain that control movement, the agency said on its Web site.
The agency said the project involves therapeutic cloning to create stem cells, rather than the reproductive cloning that led to Dolly. Therapeutic cloning has the potential to create tissue that is a patient's perfect match, to revers
e the damage of degenerative illness.
In Wilmut's project, the genetic
material of skin cells from motor neuron patients will be put into a woman's donated egg, according to the agency. The egg will then be activated to grow into an embryo from which scientists can extract stem cells, the ``master'' cells with the potential to become any type of body tissue.
Therapeutic cloning for medical research has been legal in the U.K. since 2001. Research on human embryos is allowed only for ``certain purposes,'' the agency said. These include research into serious diseases. The Newcastle Centre for Life received the agency's first license, in August, to study therapeutic cloning.
Motor neuron disease is a group of related ailments leading to weakness and wasting of muscles, the U.K. Motor Neurone Disease Association said on its Web site. It is most common in adults from 50 to 70, with an incidence of about seven cases per 100,000, the association said. The cause is u
nknown.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is the most common form of the disease. In North America, it i
s often referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease, for the professional baseball player who died from the illness in 1941 at 37. British academic and author Stephen Hawking, 63, also has the disease.
Skerryvore,
madkins
February 8, 2005
`Dolly' Creator Gets Approval in U.K. to Clone Human Embryos
Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- The scientist who cloned ``Dolly'' the sheep in 1996 today was granted the second British license to clone human embryos for medical research, the U.K.'s Human Fertilisation & Embryology Authority said.
Professor Ian Wilmut of the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh and a team at King's College in London will grow embryos with motor neuron disease to study the development of the condition, which kills cells in the spinal cord and brain that control movement, the agency said on its Web site.
The agency said the project involves therapeutic cloning to create stem cells, rather than the reproductive cloning that led to Dolly. Therapeutic cloning has the potential to create tissue that is a patient's perfect match, to revers
e the damage of degenerative illness.
In Wilmut's project, the genetic
material of skin cells from motor neuron patients will be put into a woman's donated egg, according to the agency. The egg will then be activated to grow into an embryo from which scientists can extract stem cells, the ``master'' cells with the potential to become any type of body tissue.
Therapeutic cloning for medical research has been legal in the U.K. since 2001. Research on human embryos is allowed only for ``certain purposes,'' the agency said. These include research into serious diseases. The Newcastle Centre for Life received the agency's first license, in August, to study therapeutic cloning.
Motor neuron disease is a group of related ailments leading to weakness and wasting of muscles, the U.K. Motor Neurone Disease Association said on its Web site. It is most common in adults from 50 to 70, with an incidence of about seven cases per 100,000, the association said. The cause is u
nknown.
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is the most common form of the disease. In North America, it i
s often referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease, for the professional baseball player who died from the illness in 1941 at 37. British academic and author Stephen Hawking, 63, also has the disease.
Skerryvore,
madkins