Human Embryonic Stem Cells Cloned

  • 11 years ago
Human embryonic stem cells are cloned.

Dolly, the cloned sheep was born on July 5th, 1996.

17 years later, human skin cells and an unfertilized donor egg with its DNA removed have been successfully cloned into embryonic stem cells.
Researchers from the Oregon Health and Science University have developed a human embryo clone that can be used for regenerative stem cell research.

The stem cells can be manipulated to create any other type of cell in the body, which can then be used to replace or repair dysfunctional body parts.

While stem cell research using human embryos is controversial in itself, this study cloned a human embryo cell using the somatic cell nuclear transfer method, which is known for being used to clone Dolly.

Embryo cloning is the first step toward human cloning, so the study is getting a lot of attention from scientists.

Shoukhrat Mitalipov, a reproductive biology specialist at the Oregon Health and Science University who worked on the study said: “While there is much work to be done in developing safe and effective stem cell treatments, we believe this is a significant step forward in developing the cells that could be used in regenerative medicine.”