U.S. scientist clones himself from skin cells

[Al-khiyal]

U.S. scientist clones himself from skin cells

January 18, 2008 -- An American scientist has created a cloned embryo from his own skin cells, becoming the first person to create an exact copy of their genetic make-up.

Samuel Wood, a researcher at Stemagen Corporation in La Jolla, California, plucked cells from his skin and injected them into donated eggs that had been treated to remove their own genetic material.

The eggs developed into very early stage embryos that were genetically identical to the scientist's own DNA.

The research is a step towards scientists' goal of creating supplies of embryonic stem cells genetically matched to patients, which could potentially be used to regenerate diseased or damaged tissues without the risk of immune rejection.

It is not the first time human cloned embryos have been created. In 2005, scientists led by Miodrag Stojkovic at Newcastle University used embryonic stem cells to produce a cloned embryo. It survived for only a few days and no stem cells were extracted from it.

The Stemagen team did not retrieve stem cells from their clones either, leading some scientists to question the importance of the work. Eggs were taken from women aged 20 to 24 and used within two hours, according to a report in the journal Stem Cells. Dr Stojkovic, a co-editor of the journal, said: "This is a key advance in the development of patient-specific stem cell lines for therapeutic purposes."

Dr Stephen Minger, a stem cell researcher at King's College London, said: "Disappointingly, the researchers did not go on to do the next step: to create embryonic stem cell lines from cloned embryos. The community is waiting with bated breath to see if anyone can do both steps. Having access to specific stem cell lines would allow us to research major diseases such as Parkinson's and spinal muscular atrophy."

[Bent_Bladi]

what... are they gonna make it grow and then use it as a replacement human for when the dude needs a heart transplant.... i hope they realize that the cloned person is still a person

[amalgamate]

It won't work. The process of creating a human requires a soul. Them scientists will never be able to get near creating another being.


wait- what does that imply about animals??

hold on- i've got to ask my bro in law about this issue. He does lab work in stem cell research and has extensive knowledge in these experiments.

[Bent_Bladi]

hmmm, i never thought of that... what if the soul is sorta already tied to the remnants of that egg?? *shrugs*

yeah - i wonder what'd happen if this clone developed into something more.... would it be a vegetable?

oooooh... ~ethics~

[amalgamate]

Ok, here is the explanation my brother in law gave when I sent my sister this article and asked about the soul issue:


"Human cloning as we know it will never be successful because the soul is granted from Allah swt through the father and not through the mother. As a result, human cloning from mother to mother as was in the case of dolly is impossible in the human model.

The experiment done at La Jolla by Samuel Wood is interesting but is over hyped for two reasons. First, just because a cloned cell was able to develop into an early stage embryo (4 or 8 cell stage) does not mean that it is capable of progressing through the later stages of development. As a side note, a lot of experiments were done recently where human eggs and enucleated cow eggs were fused to produce an early stage embryo that is totally incapable of producing a cow-human chimera!

Second, you also have to remember, that the embryo has to grow for at least 40 days to bear the soul from its father. The embryo produced by Samuel Wood was only a few days old. So to say that human cloning is possible in light of current events is a little too ambitious."

interesting huh?

[Cheba_Mami]

1.Was he allowed to do that in the lab???

2. it's not too ambitious. They can succeed, but will that be good???