Notes

Outline

Cloning By Luis Iturriaga, Kim Collins, and Donald Perrine

Biggest Questions in Cloning Therapeutic cloning vs. Reproductive cloning Ethical issues on Therapeutic cloning (creating and embryo just for parts) Cloning livestock like pigs to create organs for humans that are more compatible. Using cloning to prevent a species from going extinct Cloning a child for a couple whose child has died (like in the movie Godsend) Acceptance of a clone that he/she is a clone.

Milestones in Cloning 1928- Hans Spemann uses a salamander embryo to demonstrate that the cell nucleus directs cellular division. Ten years later, he proposes replacing the nucleus in an egg cell with the nucleus from another cell. 1952- Robert Briggs and Thomas J. King extract the nucleus from the cell of an advanced frog embryo and insert it into a frog egg that the undergoes division. 1963- J.B.S. Haldane coins the term clone. 1972- John Gurdon transplants the nuclei from frog embryo cells into unfertilized eggs that develop into short-lived tadpoles. He later shows that transplanted nuclei revert to an embryonic state. 1978- Louise Brown, the first baby conceived via in-vitro fertilization is born.

Milestones in Cloning (Cont.) 1984- Steen Willadsen produces a live lamb from early sheep embryo cells in a process known as twinning. It is later used on other animals. 1995- Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell create the world’s first cloned sheep, Megan and Moran, from embryo cells. 1996- Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell clone the first sheep from adult cells, named dolly. At the age of 6, dolly is euthanized when veterinarians discover she has progressive lung disease. Research suggests that she may have been susceptible to premature aging. 1998- James Thomson and John Gearhart announce that they have established the first cultures of human embryonic stem cells, derived from fertilized human eggs before they could grow into specialized cells.

Milestones in Cloning (Cont.) 2001- Scientists at Advanced Cell Technology clone a gaur, an endangered ox-like species. The animal appears healthy when it is delivered by its surrogate mother, a cow, but dies two days later from a bacterial infection. 2002- The first cloned pet, a cat named cc, short for copy cat, is produced by scientists at Texas A&M. 2003- Scientists finish mapping the human genome, two years ahead of schedule. By replacing DNA from human body cells, Advanced Cell Technology says, it has developed a human embryo that progressed to 16 cells. 2004- South Korean scientists say they have cloned a human embryo and extracted stem cells from it.

Types of Cloning There are two types of cloning: Therapeutic cloning: Cloning used to clone organs Reproductive cloning: Cloning used to clone other human beings.

The Cloning Experts Dr. Shing Yong Moon (top left) and Dr. Woo Suk Hwang (bottom left), are researchers at the Seoul National University in South Korea. They are the first and so far only scientists to have cloned a human embryo.

Therapeutic Cloning Generates tissue, not an individual First step is to remove the haploid nucleus of an egg cell and inject into the enucleated egg the diploid nucleus  of a somatic cell. The somatic cell nucleus used would ideally be from a cell of the patient.  Why? That fusion cell is then forced to divide and go through cleavage until it reaches the blastocyst embryonic stage. (Hollow ball with ICM) Embryonic stem cell is taken from the growing embryo and allowed to grow on an artificial feeder layer that supports growth. Finally, appropriate molecules are added to the growing cell line to allow differentiation into the desired tissue. Resulting tissue is genetically the same as the tissue in patients body, no genetic rejection.

Dolly and her Mom

The making of a Clone

Benefits of Cloning Cloning endangered species to increase their population. Cloning of pigs that will produce organs that will not be rejected by humans. Cloning can be used to create livestock that can produce biological proteins helping people who have diseases including diabetes, Parkinson's, and Cystic Fibrosis. Cloning also provides better research capabilities for finding cures to many diseases. There are also possibilities that nuclear transfer could provide benefits to those who would like children. For instance, couples who are infertile, or have genetic disorders, could use cloning to produce a child. Women who are single could have a child using cloning instead of in-vitro fertilization or artificial insemination.

Benefits of Cloning (Cont.) Nuclear transfer could also provide children who need organ transplants to have a clone born to donate organs (Yet this brings up ethical issues). Cloning could also provide a copy of a child for a couple whose child had died.

Drawbacks of Cloning Reduce life expectancy of cloned organism due to shorter telomeres. Reduction of genetic diversity, thus a single disease could wipe out humanity. Also, if everyone starts to be cloned and the technology is lost, inbreeding would occur bringing genetic problems to our species. Inbreeding could also occur in animals that we clone or the endangered species we could try to save with it. Techniques are not advanced enough yet. It took 277 tries to make Dolly and this produced many lambs with abnormalities that were put down. This is one reason that human cloning is on hold.

Other Uses for Cloning Cloning could also directly offer a means of curing diseases or a technique that could extend means to acquiring new data for the sciences of embryology and how organisms develop as a whole over time. Currently, the agricultural industry demands nuclear transfer to produce better livestock. Cloning could massively improve the agricultural industry as the technique of nuclear transfer improves. Currently, change in the phenotype of livestock is accomplished by bombarding embryos of livestock with genes that produce livestock with preferred traits. However, this technique is not efficient as only 5 percent of the offspring express the traits. Scientists can easily genetically alter adult cells. Thus, cloning from an adult cell would make it easier to alter the genetic material. The goal of transgenic livestock is to produce livestock with ideal characteristics for the agricultural industry and to be able to manufacture biological products such as proteins for humans.

Other Uses of Cloning (Cont.) Farmers are attempting to produce transgenic livestock already, but not efficiently, due to the minimal ability to alter embryos genetically, as stated above. Researchers can harvest and grow adult cells in large amounts compared to embryos. Scientists can then genetically alter these cells and find which ones did transform and then clone only those cells.

Threats to Cloning Organization’s like Cloneaid that have extremely intelligent people but who are legated to cults. Brigitte Boisselier is the head of Cloneaid that is an organization founded by Rael(guy on the right) who is a cult leader. Brigitte claimed to have cloned the first human baby (in Dec. 2002) and so far they claim to have done it six times and yet have provided no proof that the babies are cloned.

Threats to Cloning (Cont.) She holds a master's degree in biochemistry and a doctorate in physical chemistry from the University of Dijon in France and another doctorate in analytical chemistry from the University of Houston in the United States.

Ethics in Cloning Ethical questions arise about taking nature into our own hands by cloning animals or people. People question when we will draw the line for getting involved in natural events. Religious organizations consider nuclear transfer to cause men to be reproductively obsolete. They also claim that cloning does not respect the fact that humans have souls. They also consider cloning unnatural, and say we are taking the work of God into our own hands. There is also a debate as to the moral rights of clones. Cloning would deprive a person of uniqueness. Would they have the same rights as everyone else (look at the problems with race, culture etc.) People also wonder what mental and emotional problems would result if a clone were to find out that he or she was cloned.