14 DAY TRIAL // The scientists which performed the miracle of cloning the Dolly sheep have been granted a licence to clone human embryos for medical research. Professor Ian Wilmut, from the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, wants to obtain stem cells for research into Motor Neurone Disease (MND), a procedure that divides the medical world along ethical lines.
Officials with the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) granted the licence to professor Wilmut, Dr Paul de Sousa from Edinburgh and Professor Christopher Shaw from King's College London.
Reuters quotes those involved with the cloning breakthroughs saying that their aim will be to generate stem cells purely for research purposes.
Reproductive cloning is out of the question for the time being. That is still illegal in Britain except for therapeutic cloning, which means creating embryos as a source of stem cells to cure diseases, which is allowed on an approved basis. The cloning technique, called cell nuclear replacement, is the same as that used to create Dolly.
It has already been applied to humans by scientists in South Korea, who created the clone to extract stem cells.
Stem cells are the master cells of the body, appearing when embryos are just a few days old and developing into every type of cell and tissue in the body.
Scientists hope to be able to extract the stem cells from embryos when they are in their blank state and direct them to form any desired cell type to treat diseases ranging from Parkinson's to diabetes.
Combining cloning with stem cell research will ensure the development of the right kind of cells for study, allowing scientists to see at which exact point things start to go wrong.