Professor who created Dolly the sheep to abandon cloning
· New method creates stem cells without embryo
· Technique is less likely to stir controversy
Alexandra Topping The Guardian
guardian.co.uk
The creator of Dolly the sheep is to abandon cloning in favour of a new technique that can create stem cells without an embryo, it was reported last night. Professor Ian Wilmut, who cloned Dolly from an adult cell a decade ago, has decided that cloning no longer provides to most effective means of curing medical conditions.
Wilmut will switch to a new and less controversial technique developed in Japan, which creates stem cells from fragments of skin.
The scientist said the new technique was "easier to accept socially" than the cloning process he helped pioneer, according to the Daily Telegraph. He said: "I decided a few weeks ago not to pursue nuclear transfer [the method by which Dolly was cloned]." He will no longer use a licence to clone human embryos, which he was awarded two years ago.
The news will come as a blow to scientists who believe that the use of embryos to create stem cells is the best way to develop treatments for serious medical conditions such as stroke, heart disease and Parkinson's disease.
Unlike current stem cell research, the new method does not require the use of human embryos, which has caused controversy in the past decade. Full details of the new technique have not yet been unveiled but Wilmut described it as "extremely exciting and astonishing".
Wilmut, who works at Edinburgh University, is said to have been inspired by the work of Professor Shinya Yamanaka from Kyoto University who, in previous research on mice, created stem cells from skin fragments. He is now thought to have achieved this with human cells.
Wilmut has been a leading light in the field of stem cell research since he and his team presented Dolly, the first animal to be cloned from an adult cell, in 1997. It provoked fierce ethical debate among religious groups and politicians.
It is thought the new technique will open up the possibility of harvesting a patient's own cells, which, when injected back into the body, could be "reprogrammed" to try to repair damage caused by disease. |
