Cloned human embryos have been produced by two US biotechnology companies during research aimed at developing tissue transplant therapies, according to a number of reports in the mainstream UK press last week.
The California-based Geron Corporation, which effectively bought the right to use the cloning technology developed at the Roslin Institute where Dolly was born, aims to develop a therapy that produces tissue that is genetically the patient's own. The hope is that this research will lead to treatments for a variety of degenerative disorders such as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's disease. A spokesman for Geron said that it was working inside all guidelines issued by the US government and confirmed that both it and its Scottish subsidiary actively support the ban on the use of cloning technology for reproductive purposes.
Another company, the Massachusetts-based Advanced Cell Therapeutics (ACT), is also carrying out cloning experiments aimed at producing transplantable tissue. Although Dr Robert Lanza, ACT's director of tissue engineering, and his team have yet to publish details of how they created the cloned embryo, experts in the field say there is no reason to doubt their claim.
The method is likely to be close to the Dolly style cell nucleus replacement technique (CNR) developed at Roslin. All cloned embryos will have been left to disintegrate before 14 days of development, in line with US (and UK) research rules.
Sources and References
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How far should clone research go?
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First cloned human embryo
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US move to clone human embryo
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