Intensive stud 6 So what makes Wilmut's sheep unique? Instead of using early-stage embryo cells, wilmut used cells from the udder of an adult sheep. In theory, thats like using one of your skin cells to clone a new you 7 Wilmut knew that each cell of the body contains a full set of genetic instructions - a blueprint to grow a complete individual. (The only exceptions are egg and sperm cells, each of which contains half the genes to grow a new individual Once cells have specialized, on their way to becoming skin or eye or udder cells, most of the genetic instructions to make a full being are turned off. Until now, scientists believed that specialized cells could not be used to form a complete organism
Intensive Study 6 So what makes Wilmut’s sheep unique? Instead of using early-stage embryo cells, Wilmut used cells from the udder of an adult sheep. In theory, that’s like using one of your skin cells to clone a new you! 7 Wilmut knew that each cell of the body contains a full set of genetic instructions — a blueprint to grow a complete individual. (The only exceptions are egg and sperm cells, each of which contains half the genes to grow a new individual.) Once cells have specialized, on their way to becoming skin or eye or udder cells, most of the genetic instructions to make a full being are turned off. Until now, scientists believed that specialized cells could not be used to form a complete organism
Intensive stud 8 Wilmut proved them wrong. He found a way to reprogram?an udder cell and make it grow into a new cloned lamb. An amazing fact: Dolly has no biological father. 9 Wilmut's success didnt come easily. He has been studying reproductive science for more than two decades. Last year, he used embryos to successfully clone two sheep. Then he forged ahead to clone an adult sheep. But, of 277 udder cells he fused with egg cells, only 30 began to develop into embryos. He implanted 29 of those into female sheep. Only one adult gave birth to a lamb
Intensive Study 8 Wilmut proved them wrong. He found a way to “reprogram” an udder cell and make it grow into a new cloned lamb. An amazing fact: Dolly has no biological father. 9 Wilmut’s success didn’t come easily. He has been studying reproductive science for more than two decades. Last year, he used embryos to successfully clone two sheep. Then he forged ahead to clone an adult sheep. But, of 277 udder cells he fused with egg cells, only 30 began to develop into embryos. He implanted 29 of those into female sheep. Only one adult gave birth to a lamb
Intensive stud 10 Other scientists have jumped in to repeat Wilmut's experiment with other animals, including cows. And thats what has scientists, animal-rights activists, politicians even President Clinton up in arms. How far, they wonder, will cloning go l Wilmut maintains that cloning animals has tremendous potential for helping people. Cloned sheep, he says, could be used as living drug factories. Scientists could"engineer?"sheep that produce drugs in their milk, And by altering the proteins on the surfaces of animal organs to make them more like human organs, scientists believe they may be able to create a plentiful source of organ donors for people
Intensive Study 10 Other scientists have jumped in to repeat Wilmut’s experiment with other animals, including cows. And that’s what has scientists, animal-rights activists, politicians — even President Clinton — up in arms. How far, they wonder, will cloning go? 11 Wilmut maintains that cloning animals has tremendous potential for helping people. Cloned sheep, he says, could be used as living drug factories. Scientists could “engineer” sheep that produce drugs in their milk. And by altering the proteins on the surfaces of animal organs to make them more like human organs, scientists believe they may be able to create a plentiful source of organ donors for people
Intensive stud 12 Why not clone humans as organ donors? Theoretically wilmut says, there is no reason his techniques couldnt someday be used to clone people. Think about the possibilities: a whole team of Michael Jordans, a scientific panel of Albert Einsteins, a movie starring and co-starring Brad Pitt 13 On a more serious note, some fertility specialists argue that couples who have difficulty conceiving a baby could make copies of themselves. And parents whose child has a fatal disease like cancer might be able to clone the child. creating a twin who is an exact match for bone-marrow donation
Intensive Study 12 Why not clone humans as organ donors? Theoretically, Wilmut says, there is no reason his techniques couldn’t someday be used to clone people. Think about the possibilities: a whole team of Michael Jordans, a scientific panel of Albert Einsteins, a movie starring and co-starring Brad Pitt. 13 On a more serious note, some fertility specialists argue that couples who have difficulty conceiving a baby could make copies of themselves. And parents whose child has a fatal disease like cancer might be able to clone the child, creating a twin who is an exact match for bone-marrow donation
Intensive stud 14 But even lan wilmut draws the line at cloning humans. "All of us would find that offensive, he says. Several countries including Britain, Denmark, Germany, and Australia, have outlawed all scientific work on cloning humans. The u.s. has no such law, but President Clinton has set up a panel of scientists and ethicists to study the issue. In the meantime, clinton has imposed a ban on using Federal money to clone humans
Intensive Study 14 But even Ian Wilmut draws the line at cloning humans. “All of us would find that offensive,” he says. Several countries including Britain, Denmark, Germany, and Australia, have outlawed all scientific work on cloning humans. The U.S. has no such law, but President Clinton has set up a panel of scientists and ethicists to study the issue. In the meantime, Clinton has imposed a ban on using Federal money to clone humans