mrz
10-06-03, 23:17
Dolly lab to create 'virgin birth' embryos
17:54 10 June 03
NewScientist.com news service
The team that cloned Dolly the sheep have been granted the UK's first stem cell research licence allowing the creation of human embryos from unfertilised eggs.
This process is called parthenogenesis - Greek for "virgin birth" - and occurs naturally in some reptiles and insects. It allows females to reproduce without males, as their eggs are prompted to develop into embryos without being fertilised by sperm.
Ian Wilmut and colleagues at the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, will artificially stimulate human egg cells to undergo parthenogenesis and then take stem cells from the resulting embryos. Their aim is to develop the technology needed to maintain cell lines of human embryonic stem cells in the laboratory.
The one-year research licence was granted by the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority on Tuesday. "Their objective is to look at developing stem cells per se," says Claire Rich, an HFEA spokeswoman.
Question of potential
"Human embryonic stem cells have the potential to develop into any different kind of tissue in the human body," she told New Scientist, and this research could one day lead to treatments for diseases such as Parkinson's disease, heart disease and diabetes.
Importantly, human embryos obtained through parthenogenesis "do not have the potential to develop into a child", says the HFEA. Therefore, destroying these embryos to obtain embryonic stem cells (ESCs) is not ending a potential human life. This ethical objection caused a number of countries to ban ESC research.
Human embryos have been created by parthenogenesis earlier in 2003, by a US biotech company called Stemron. Scientists managed to obtain early embryos, called blastocysts, from which stem cells can be harvested.
The licence awarded to the Roslin team does not permit the ESCs obtained to be used for any therapeutic purposes, but they can be used to test new medicines. A better understanding of how human eggs mature in the laboratory may also help women suffering from related fertility problems.
Shaoni Bhattacharya
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993815
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
:terrorist
Omg. !@%#%$^(*^ :boos: :zegniets:
17:54 10 June 03
NewScientist.com news service
The team that cloned Dolly the sheep have been granted the UK's first stem cell research licence allowing the creation of human embryos from unfertilised eggs.
This process is called parthenogenesis - Greek for "virgin birth" - and occurs naturally in some reptiles and insects. It allows females to reproduce without males, as their eggs are prompted to develop into embryos without being fertilised by sperm.
Ian Wilmut and colleagues at the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, will artificially stimulate human egg cells to undergo parthenogenesis and then take stem cells from the resulting embryos. Their aim is to develop the technology needed to maintain cell lines of human embryonic stem cells in the laboratory.
The one-year research licence was granted by the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority on Tuesday. "Their objective is to look at developing stem cells per se," says Claire Rich, an HFEA spokeswoman.
Question of potential
"Human embryonic stem cells have the potential to develop into any different kind of tissue in the human body," she told New Scientist, and this research could one day lead to treatments for diseases such as Parkinson's disease, heart disease and diabetes.
Importantly, human embryos obtained through parthenogenesis "do not have the potential to develop into a child", says the HFEA. Therefore, destroying these embryos to obtain embryonic stem cells (ESCs) is not ending a potential human life. This ethical objection caused a number of countries to ban ESC research.
Human embryos have been created by parthenogenesis earlier in 2003, by a US biotech company called Stemron. Scientists managed to obtain early embryos, called blastocysts, from which stem cells can be harvested.
The licence awarded to the Roslin team does not permit the ESCs obtained to be used for any therapeutic purposes, but they can be used to test new medicines. A better understanding of how human eggs mature in the laboratory may also help women suffering from related fertility problems.
Shaoni Bhattacharya
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993815
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
:terrorist
Omg. !@%#%$^(*^ :boos: :zegniets: