A breakthrough in cloning technology - for the first time in the world, scientists succeeded in creating dozens of cloned embryos from adult monkeys

The innovative work methods used by the researchers can turn the field of cloning on its face, and significantly increase the efficiency of turning human eggs into cloned embryos

For the first time in the world, scientists succeeded in creating dozens of cloned embryos from adult monkeys. The innovative work methods used by the researchers can turn the field of cloning on its face, and significantly increase the efficiency of turning human eggs into cloned embryos.

The scientists will publish their results this month, proving that they succeeded in extracting stem cells from some of the cloned embryos. These stem cells were in turn grown in the laboratory, and developed into adult heart cells and nerve cells.
The discovery raises the optimism of the scientists involved in the field. According to them, this is a real breakthrough, proving that it is possible to clone even adult primates. The variety of failures that many scientists have experienced to this day in their attempt to breed monkeys and humans, made many believe that there is some kind of 'barrier' that distinguishes primates from other animals. Now, the researchers say, the barrier has been breached.

The head of the research team was Shokrat Mitalifov - a Russian-born scientist at the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Beaverton. Dr. Mitalifov helped discover a new way to treat the monkey eggs during the cloning process, which involves fusing each egg with a nucleus taken from a skin cell of an adult monkey. Doctor Mitalifov himself says that he is unable to comment on the research before it is published in the prestigious journal Nature. However, he told his colleagues at a scientific conference this year that he had created two growth lines of stem cells from 20 cloned embryos, and the tests showed that the stem cells were indeed a true clone product.

Professor Don Wolfe headed the research laboratory at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, before his recent retirement. According to him, the new procedure is based on a microscopic work method that does not involve the use of ultraviolet light and dyes, which damage the eggs of monkeys.
"In the beginning, we didn't understand how much ultraviolet light and dyes damage the monkeys' eggs. One of the important advances we made was to remove these factors from the process," said Professor Wolff. "We can now produce cloned monkey embryos at a reasonable rate, which will allow us to study the cloned embryo."

transferred to a monkey?

In collaboration with another research group in China, the group from Oregon has so far produced about 100 cloned embryos. The embryos were implanted in 50 cockroach boxes, but none of them managed to reach the end of pregnancy. The researchers believe and hope that this is bad luck, and mention that it took 277 attempts to create Dolly - the first cloned adult sheep.
"It is possible that of all the cloned embryos we produce, only one out of 20 or 30 is capable of producing a pregnancy that will not fail. Apparently we simply did not manage to inject them into the animal at the right time, to allow absorption of the fetus and development of the pregnancy." Professor Wolfe said.

Resistance

Many groups and individuals oppose cloning. According to them, the new and efficient work method will lead to more and more attempts to create a cloned human embryo. Even if these attempts are successful, many cloned human embryos will be destroyed in the process. It is important to remember that the embryo at this stage is nothing more than a ball made up of several hundred cells, and its size is the size of a dot on a page. Is he human? The answer, of course, varies from person to person.

the benefit

Despite the fierce opposition to human cloning, it is hard to argue with the enormous benefit that this field can bring to medical science. In cloning for medical purposes, human stem cells can be produced from any person, with their help it will be possible to treat a wide variety of diseases and medical problems - starting with genetic diseases and ending with various amputations and disabilities.
The progress of the science of cloning and the breakthrough achieved, indicate a constant and consistent improvement in the field. We can only hope that along with the development of the various work methods and techniques, there will also be a change in American public opinion that will allow the progress of embryonic stem cell research in the United States as well.
Israel is currently one of the leading countries in research in the field of human embryonic stem cells, with first-rate researchers such as Dr. Shulamit Levenberg, Professor Nissim Benvanisti, and Professor Yosef Itzkovits-Eldor. But will she continue to lead the stem cell revolution? We can only hope that the ever-increasing cuts in the science budget in Israel will not harm this innovative research either.

More of the topic in Hayadan:

• Researchers in the US claim to have created a kidney-like organ from cloned cow cells
• A new fundamental discovery in evolution: the first multicellular animals evolved from a collection of stem cells and not from sponges
• Italian cloning expert Antinori: three cloned babies were born