Major breakthrough in stem cell research
LONDON: British scientists have created a cloned human embryo for the first time, even as South Korean and US scientists announced they have isolated human embryonic stem cell lines tailored to match specific nuclear DNA.
According to a report in The Times Friday, a team from Newcastle University produced three cloned embryos, one of which survived to the blastocyst stage of about 100 cells, at which stem cells can be collected.
The research holds the potential to cure conditions such as Parkinson's disease, diabetes and paralysis.
Genetic testing has confirmed that the cells would be immunologically compatible were they to be transplanted, but it is too early to attempt this safely.
The development comes as findings by a joint study of South Korean and US scientists on stem cell research were published in the May 19 on-line issue of the Science journal.
Their research pushes the stem cell research closer to the goal of transplanting healthy cells into humans to replace cells damaged by diseases such as Parkinson's and diabetes, scientists said.
Each of the 11 new human embryonic stem cell lines was created by transferring the nuclear genetic material from a non-reproductive cell of a patient into a donated egg, or "oocyte," whose nucleus had been removed.
Next, oocytes with the patient's genetic material were allowed to grow to the blastocyst stage, an early stage of embryo development. Stem cells were then derived from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst.
The researchers, led by Woo Suk Hwang from Seoul National University, yielded the first embryonic stem cell line from a cloned human blastocyst in year 2004.
In the new study, they replaced the nuclei from donated oocytes with nuclei from skin cells from male and female patients, aged between two to 56, who had spinal cord injuries, juvenile diabetes and the genetic disease "congenital ypogamma-globulinemia."
These advances pave the way for using cloned embryonic stem cells - master cells that can form any tissue in the body - to create spare part tissue for treating disease.
The research has re-ignited controversy over the ethics of human cloning even for therapeutic purposes.
Critics said the new research would assist efforts to produce a cloned baby as the methods involved are virtually identical. They also objected to the destruction of embryonic life and said that any form of cloning insults human dignity.
Other critics, however, said it would be immoral not to proceed.
"To fail to develop therapies that would save 100,000 people is morally equivalent to killing 100,000 people," the paper cited Professor Julian Savulescu, of Oxford University, as saying.
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Keep up the good work guys :thumb:
LONDON: British scientists have created a cloned human embryo for the first time, even as South Korean and US scientists announced they have isolated human embryonic stem cell lines tailored to match specific nuclear DNA.
According to a report in The Times Friday, a team from Newcastle University produced three cloned embryos, one of which survived to the blastocyst stage of about 100 cells, at which stem cells can be collected.
The research holds the potential to cure conditions such as Parkinson's disease, diabetes and paralysis.
Genetic testing has confirmed that the cells would be immunologically compatible were they to be transplanted, but it is too early to attempt this safely.
The development comes as findings by a joint study of South Korean and US scientists on stem cell research were published in the May 19 on-line issue of the Science journal.
Their research pushes the stem cell research closer to the goal of transplanting healthy cells into humans to replace cells damaged by diseases such as Parkinson's and diabetes, scientists said.
Each of the 11 new human embryonic stem cell lines was created by transferring the nuclear genetic material from a non-reproductive cell of a patient into a donated egg, or "oocyte," whose nucleus had been removed.
Next, oocytes with the patient's genetic material were allowed to grow to the blastocyst stage, an early stage of embryo development. Stem cells were then derived from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst.
The researchers, led by Woo Suk Hwang from Seoul National University, yielded the first embryonic stem cell line from a cloned human blastocyst in year 2004.
In the new study, they replaced the nuclei from donated oocytes with nuclei from skin cells from male and female patients, aged between two to 56, who had spinal cord injuries, juvenile diabetes and the genetic disease "congenital ypogamma-globulinemia."
These advances pave the way for using cloned embryonic stem cells - master cells that can form any tissue in the body - to create spare part tissue for treating disease.
The research has re-ignited controversy over the ethics of human cloning even for therapeutic purposes.
Critics said the new research would assist efforts to produce a cloned baby as the methods involved are virtually identical. They also objected to the destruction of embryonic life and said that any form of cloning insults human dignity.
Other critics, however, said it would be immoral not to proceed.
"To fail to develop therapies that would save 100,000 people is morally equivalent to killing 100,000 people," the paper cited Professor Julian Savulescu, of Oxford University, as saying.
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Keep up the good work guys :thumb:
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