Cloning for Medicine: the Miracle that Wasn’t

By Editor, Sunday Times, Sri LankaJul 5 2016 (The Sunday Times - Sri Lanka)PARIS, AFP – When Dolly the cloned sheep was born 20 years ago on July 5, many hailed mankind’s new-found mastery over DNA as a harbinger of medical miracles such as lab-grown transplant organs. Others trembled at the portent of a “Brave New World” of identical humans farmed for spare parts or as cannon fodder.As it turns out, neither came to pass.Human cloning — complicated, risky and ethically contentious — has largely been replaced as the holy grail of regenerative medicine by other technologies, say experts.“It has not lived (up) to the hype,” said Rosario Isasi of the University of Miami’s Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy.“It was like a eureka moment: that we will finally be able to understand more (about) the mechanisms of disease, be able to maybe use it as a treatment for infertility,” she told AFP. “But that has not happened.” Arguably the world’s most famous sheep, Dolly was the first mammal cloned using a technique called somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).It involves removing the DNA-containing nucleus of a cell other than an egg or sperm — a skin cell, for example — and implanting it into an unfertilised egg from which the nucleus has been removed.In Dolly’s case, the gene-encoding cell was taken from a mammary gland, which saw the ewe named for buxom country singer Dolly Parton.Once transferred, the egg repro...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: Global & Universal Authors: Tags: Development & Aid Global Headlines Health Source Type: news