NORTHAMPTON, May 24, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The UK’s Motor Neurone Disease Association has announced it will donate £800,000 (US $1,200,000) to fund human/animal “hybrid embryo” cloning research by the same Edinburgh University team that created “Dolly” the cloned sheep.
The 3-year project, led by the team at the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine at Edinburgh University and headed by Dr. Ian Wilmut, hopes to develop human brain cells that carry the hereditary form of Motor Neurone Disease (MND) called TDP-43.
The experiments will involve removing the nucleus of the gamete or “ova” of an animal, most likely a pig or cow, and inserting the nucleus taken from a donor patient. The resulting cloned human/animal hybrid embryos that survive will be cultivated for several days until they reach the stage at which embryonic stem cells are obtainable. These stem cells, the researchers say, can be used to create nerve cells that carry the TDP-43 gene.
This form of cloning, called “somatic cell nuclear transfer” (SCNT) using both human and animal tissue, was approved for experimental use by the UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) in 2008.
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/may/10052408.html
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