[BobbyB]

US scientist clones himself from skin cells
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."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/20...dicalresearch:

[BobbyB]

Scientists make human embryo clone
BY DELTHIA RICKS | delthia.ricks@newsday.com
January 18, 2008

Scientists at a small biotech company in California say they have cloned five human embryos in a technological feat they claim will one day provide a source of viable embryonic stem cells.

The coveted primordial cells that scientists theorize may one day be used to treat a range of human afflictions were not generated in the experiment. And the five clones, created in the laboratories of Stemagen Corp., in La Jolla, were destroyed.

Dr. Samuel Wood, a medical doctor and chief executive of the company, along with a colleague, donated skin cells to begin the process of making human clones. DNA from those cells was transferred to human eggs. Creating human clones is not considered groundbreaking. But the next step, which could have been a landmark -- generating viable stem cells from human clones -- did not occur.




Wood told Newsday Thursday that the new work provides a proof of principle that human clones can be developed in the laboratory and ultimately used as a source of embryonic stem cells.

"We have a very simple goal, to create the most therapeutically useful [stem cell] lines that are possible," Wood said in a telephone interview. "We consider this a major milestone in our attempt to reach that goal."

Wood and Andrew French, Stemagen's chief scientific officer, authored a paper in the journal, Stem Cells, describing how they created the clones.

Cloning human embryos is not new.

British scientists claim to have cloned a human embryo two years ago, proving that humans can be replicated in the laboratory just as scientists have been able to clone a host of animals.

Wood said the next phase of his research will involve following his cloning recipe but taking it to the next level, which would involve extracting stem cells.

Reaction was mixed Thursday to the Stemagen report.

"I applaud their efforts and I think it is very important that their research continues," said Dr. Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass.

But, without producing stem cells, no one knows whether the cloning technique can lead to the highly sought cells, Lanza said.

Last week, he reported a step forward in attempts to generate stem cells in a technique designed to extract them from an embryo without destroying it.

Christopher Henderson, co-director of the Motor Neuron Center at Columbia University and a researcher investigating the potential of stem cells to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis -- Lou Gehrig's disease -- commended Wood's incremental approach.

"It's much better to move forward in small carefully validated steps," Henderson said yesterday "than to try to make huge headline-news by doing the whole thing at once and not doing it properly."

Wood's efforts, however, revive memories of the bogus experiments by Hwang Woo-Suk, the South Korean who claimed two years ago to have extracted human stem cells from cloned embryos. He retracted the claim after the global scientific community questioned his work, which was revealed to be fake.

Ethics arguments face Wood and others who attempt to clone humans -- for any reason.

"We've been objecting to human cloning for any purpose for many years," said Richard Doerflinger, deputy director for Pro-Life Activities at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington D.C. "We think there should be laws against it as there are in other countries, and as the United Nations has called for."


http://www.newsday.com/news/health/n...ews-columnists