Dolly Scientist Gets Human Cloning License

[Tab]

LONDON - The British government Tuesday gave the creator of Dolly the Sheep a license to clone human embryos for medical research into the cause of motor neuron disease.

Ian Wilmut, who led the team that created Dolly at Scotland's Roslin Institute in 1996, and motor neuron expert Christopher Shaw of the Institute of Psychiatry in London, plan to clone embyros to study how nerve cells go awry to cause the disease. The experiments do not involve creating cloned babies.

It is the second such license approved since Britain became the first country to legalize research cloning in 2001. The first was granted in August to a team that hopes to use cloning to create insulin-producing cells that could be transplanted into diabetics.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=6&u=/ap/20050208/ap_on_he_me/britain_therapeutic_cloning

[Auntie Bush]

1. Thank goodness...someone has some brains.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

2. Dolly expert is to clone embryos (Human embryos)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4245267.stm


The team hopes to produce cloned cells from patients with motor neurone disease
The creator of Dolly the sheep has been granted a licence to clone human embryos for medical research.
Professor Ian Wilmut and Kings College London scientists will clone early stage embryos to study motor neurone disease (MND).

This is the second time the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has given such permission.

Critics maintain that testing human embryos is immoral. Others question the potential benefits of the work.

Professor Wilmut said it will mean MND can be studied in unprecedented detail.

Therapeutic cloning for research has been legal in the UK since 2001 and it would be only the second time the authority has given consent.


Our aim will be to generate stem cells purely for research purposes

Professor Wilmut


Q&A: Therapeutic cloning
Your views

The professor's team was the first to apply for a therapeutic cloning licence in the country.

Up until now, scientists have wanted to create cloned embryos to see if they can be grown into tissues to repair damaged body parts.

But Professor Wilmut's proposal is different as he does not plan to grow healthy replacement tissue.

Instead he aims to deliberately clone embryos that have MND from patients who have the condition.

Professor Wilmut, of the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, says cells from the embryos can be used to study how the disease progresses in very close detail.

He also said the cells can be used to try out new drugs to see if they stop the disease from progressing.

MND is caused by the death of cells - called motor neurones - that control movement in the brain and spinal cord.

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[donsu]

3. I wish them much good luck in finding out why the cells go awry

nt

[Roland99]

4. A positive move forward