Salon.com > Cloning

Researchers clone embryonic stem cells in major scientific breakthrough

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:36:00 +0000

Researchers at Oregon Health and Science University have succeeded in using cloning to create human embryonic stem cells, a major medical breakthrough.

Embryonic stem cells can turn into any type of cell in the body, enabling them to be used as replacement tissue in the treatment of major injuries and disease. Scientists have been working for more than a decade to clone human embryonic stem cells; on Wednesday, those many years of research finally paid off, as the Wall Street Journal reports:

The scientists first removed the DNA from an unfertilized human egg, and then inserted a patient's mature skin cell -- containing the patient's DNA -- into that egg. Next, they prompted a chemical reaction, causing the cells to fuse and begin development.

That led to a blastocyst, a hollow ball of 50 to 100 cells. For a fetus to form, the blastocyst must be implanted in a womb. An inner clump of cells in the blastocyst goes on to form the embryo, while an outer layer goes on to make the placenta.

For the tissue-growing experiment, the researchers focused on the clump of cells containing embryonic stem cells.

With the help of certain "growth" chemicals, they were able to transform the stem cells into "various cell lines and tissues, including beating human heart cells," said Shoukhrat Mitalipov, a developmental biologist at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, Ore., and a lead author of the study.

Can cloning save endangered species?

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:42:00 +0000

In 2009 the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corp. (Embrapa) and the Brasilia Zoological Garden began scavenging and freezing blood, sperm and umbilical cord cells from roadkill and other wild animals that had died, mostly in the Cerrado savanna—an incredibly diverse collection of tropical forest and grassland ecosystems home to at least 10,000 plant species and more than 800 species of birds and mammals, some of which live nowhere else in the world. Specimens were collected from the bush dog, collared anteater, bison and gray brocket deer, among other species.

“Impeccably preserved” woolly mammoth excavated in France

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 22:23:00 +0000

Archaeologists near Paris Thursday excavated a nearly complete woolly mammoth skeleton. The long-dead mammoth, named "Helmut," is considered remarkable not simply because it is "impeccably preserved" but also because neanderthal-made spearheads were discovered among the bones.

As Salon noted in October following the accidental discovery by a Russian boy of a mammoth carcass, "such discoveries fuel ongoing interest in cloning a mammoth." Scientists in South Korea, Russia and Japan are already working on mammoth cloning projects using stem cells.

The video below gives more details on this latest French discovery:

Stem cell pioneers win Nobel Prize

Mon, 08 Oct 2012 12:00:00 +0000

Two stem cell research pioneers have been recognized with a Nobel Prize. John Gurdon from the U.K. and Shinya Yamanaka from Japan were announced Monday as this year's medicine prizewinners for their work on turning adult cells back into stem cells.

A release from the Nobel Committee said that the scientists' work "revolutionized" science. In 1962, Gurdon showed that the genetic information inside a cell taken from a frog's gut contained all the information needed to clone a whole frog. He took the genetic information and placed it inside a frog egg. The resulting clone developed into a normal tadpole. This technique was later used to create the first cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep.

In 2006, Yamanaka showed how mature cells in mice could essentially be reprogrammed and turned back to earlier cell states. This discovery presented an alternative to the use of embryonic stem cells, considered by some to be ethically problematic.

It is hoped that stem cell research, still in its early stages, could provide cures for diseases including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Russian boy discovers woolly mammoth carcass

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 22:34:00 +0000

An 11-year-old Russian boy stumbled across the 30,000-year-old remains of a woolly mammoth, the New Scientist reported Thursday:

Yevgeny Salinder found the 500-kilogram beast in the tundra of the Taymyr peninsula in northern Russia. Scientists laboured for a week with axes and steam to dig it out of the permafrost it's been encased in for centuries.

Woolly mammoths have been found in the permafrost in Siberia since at least 1929, but this is one of the best preserved. Its tusks, mouth and rib cage are clearly visible.

The article notes that such discoveries fuel ongoing interest in cloning a mammoth. Scientists in South Korea, Russia and Japan are already working on mammoth cloning projects using stem cells. "Scientists are now setting their sights on the extinct woolly mammoth, after global warming thawed Siberia's permafrost and uncovered remains of the animal," AFP reported earlier this year.