Scientists Clone First Human Embryo
Scientists Clone First Human Embryo
Genetically Identical Cells May One Day Cure Disease
Feb. 12, 2004 -- Researchers in South Korea say they are the first to successfully clone a human embryo and use it to create stem cells that may one day provide the foundation for curing diseases from diabetes to Parkinson's.
"We are the first to report the development of cloned human embryonic stem cells, potentially capable of becoming any cell in the body," says researcher Woo Suk Hwang of Seoul National University in South Korea.
Hwang presented the results of the study today at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Seattle. The results also appear in today's issue of Science Express, the online version of the journal Science.
Researchers stress that this breakthrough is intended to pave the way for new custom-made medical treatments, not for human cloning.
Embryonic stem cells are the building blocks of life and the basis from which all other tissue cells are formed. The cells are found in the embryo only during the earliest stages of development and eventually diversify into millions of different cells.
By cloning human embryonic stem cells, researchers hope to replace damaged cells in the human body with genetically identical healthy cells to cure disease.
Embryonic stem cells have been created in the past using cells from mice and other animals, but achieving the same feat with human cells has proved too problematic until now.
"People have tried and utterly failed in the last couple of years to do it with human cells or primer cells, and they succeeded," says Rudolf Jaenisch, MD, professor of biology at the Whitehead Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "That's an important step."
In the study, researchers collected 242 eggs and a sample of ovarian cells from 16 unpaid female volunteers. The scientists then removed the genetic material -- which contains the nucleus of each egg -- and replaced it with the nucleus from the donor's ovarian cell.
Then, using chemicals to trigger cell division, the researchers were able to create 30 blastocysts -- early-stage embryos that contain about 100 cells -- that were a genetic copy of the donor cells.
Next, the researchers harvested a single colony of stem cells from the blastocysts. These stem cells have the potential to grow into any tissue in the body. Because they are the genetic match to the donor, they aren't likely to be rejected by the patient's immune system.
Scientists Clone First Human Embryo
Genetically Identical Cells May One Day Cure Disease
Feb. 12, 2004 -- Researchers in South Korea say they are the first to successfully clone a human embryo and use it to create stem cells that may one day provide the foundation for curing diseases from diabetes to Parkinson's.
"We are the first to report the development of cloned human embryonic stem cells, potentially capable of becoming any cell in the body," says researcher Woo Suk Hwang of Seoul National University in South Korea.
Hwang presented the results of the study today at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Seattle. The results also appear in today's issue of Science Express, the online version of the journal Science.
Researchers stress that this breakthrough is intended to pave the way for new custom-made medical treatments, not for human cloning.
Embryonic stem cells are the building blocks of life and the basis from which all other tissue cells are formed. The cells are found in the embryo only during the earliest stages of development and eventually diversify into millions of different cells.
By cloning human embryonic stem cells, researchers hope to replace damaged cells in the human body with genetically identical healthy cells to cure disease.
Embryonic stem cells have been created in the past using cells from mice and other animals, but achieving the same feat with human cells has proved too problematic until now.
"People have tried and utterly failed in the last couple of years to do it with human cells or primer cells, and they succeeded," says Rudolf Jaenisch, MD, professor of biology at the Whitehead Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "That's an important step."
First Cloned Human Embryo Clears Major Hurdle
In the study, researchers collected 242 eggs and a sample of ovarian cells from 16 unpaid female volunteers. The scientists then removed the genetic material -- which contains the nucleus of each egg -- and replaced it with the nucleus from the donor's ovarian cell.
Then, using chemicals to trigger cell division, the researchers were able to create 30 blastocysts -- early-stage embryos that contain about 100 cells -- that were a genetic copy of the donor cells.
Next, the researchers harvested a single colony of stem cells from the blastocysts. These stem cells have the potential to grow into any tissue in the body. Because they are the genetic match to the donor, they aren't likely to be rejected by the patient's immune system.
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