Ian Wilmot, who created the first cloned living creature, has been granted permission to clone human embryos to study muscular dystrophy. This raises objections among conservatives and religious people
Avi Blizovsky
Dr. Ian Wilmot with Dolly the sheep. Wants another first
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The British government last night (Monday, 8/2/05) granted the creators of the cloned sheep "Dolly" a license to clone humans for the purpose of medical research. This is the second license of its kind to be granted, since Britain became the first country to approve human cloning for research purposes.
Therapeutic cloning or cloning for medical purposes has been legal in the UK since 2001 but this is the second time in total that the authorities have given permission required by law.
Until now, scientists wanted to create cloned embryos to see if they could develop tissues from their stem cells to repair damaged parts of the body. However, Prof. Wilmot's idea is different because he does not plan to grow healthy replacement tissues. Instead, he plans to specifically clone embryos carrying the NBD disease from patients, and this in order to monitor the change caused by the disease even in the embryonic stage.
The Fertilization and Fetal Sciences Authority, which oversees this type of research, approved the granting of the license to Ian Wilmot, who headed the group that created Dolly at the Roslyn Research Institute in Scotland, in 1996. It was reported in the AP agency that Wilmot requested the license to study how nerve cells go wrong on the way to the formation of motor disorders.
The first license was granted in August to a group from the University of Newcastle that hopes to use the clone to create insulin-producing cells that could be transplanted into diabetics.
Even such research, known as therapeutic cloning, because it does not lead to the formation of a baby, is met with opposition from bodies opposed to abortion and others who take a conservative line in relation to biology, because the researchers must destroy human embryos (or use aborted embryos) in order to "harvest" the cells used for their research.
Wilmot and Christopher Shaw, an expert in motor neurons from the London Psychiatric Institute, plan to clone cells from patients suffering from incurable muscular dystrophy, and at the same time extract "empty" stem cells from the cloned embryo, make them develop into nerve cells and compare their development to nerve cells from healthy embryos.
(MND). According to Wilmot, "for the first time it will be possible to study - starting from the earliest stages of their formation - cells, which were in a patient's body, would develop into muscular dystrophy." This will "create completely new possibilities to understand the disease, and to start developing new drugs." The researchers intend to take stem cells from excess embryos (found by diluting embryos in artificial insemination), or from embryos that will be produced specifically for the purpose of the study. The mechanism behind motor neurone disease is not fully understood, because there is no access to the nerves in the brain and central nervous system, and they cannot be removed from the patients.
The organizations opposed to cloning expressed sorrow and surprise at the change in Wilson's position, noting that in the years after Dolly was cloned, Wilson was at the head of the scientists warning against cloning mammals, saying that he would "never come close to cloning humans". Dolly died in 2003 from lung disease, which usually affects sheep at an older age.
For news at the BBC
They knew the stem cells
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