KEY POINTS:
A technical breakthrough has enabled scientists to create for the first time dozens of cloned embryos from adult monkeys, raising the prospect of the same procedure being used to make cloned human embryos.
Attempts to clone human embryos for research have been dogged by technical problems and controversies over fraudulent research and questionable ethics. But the new technique promises to revolutionise the efficiency by which scientists can turn human eggs into cloned embryos.
It is the first time scientists have been able to create viable cloned embryos from an adult primate - in this case a 10-year-old male rhesus macaque monkey - and they are scheduled to report their findings in the journal Nature later this month.
The work was led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov, a Russian-born scientist at the Oregon National Primate Research Centre in Beaverton. The scientists are believed to have tried to implant about 100 cloned embryos into the wombs of around 50 surrogate rhesus macaque mothers but have not yet succeeded with the birth of any cloned offspring.
However, one scientist said this may simply be down to bad luck as it took 277 attempts to create Dolly the sheep.
Scientists said it was the breakthrough they had been waiting for because, until now, there was a growing feeling that there might be some insuperable barrier to creating cloned embryos from adult primates.
The development will not be welcomed in all quarters. Opponents of cloning will argue that the new technique will lead to increased attempts at creating - and destroying - cloned human embryos for research purposes.
- Independent
