all therapeutic cloning stories

Stem cell lines created from discarded IVF embryos

404132862 — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:55:47 -0500

Human embryos that are discarded every day as medical waste from in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics could be an important source of stem cells for research, according to a team of Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers at Children's Hospital Boston.

Major progress toward cell reprogramming

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 09:34:31 -0400

Two Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers and scientists at Whitehead Institute and Japan's Kyoto University have independently taken major steps toward discovering ways to reprogram cells in order to direct their development - a key goal in developmental biology and regenerative medicine.

Additionally, the group led by Kevin Eggan, an HSCI principal faculty member - whose study is featured on the cover of the latest issue of the journal Nature - has disproved a long-held view of developmental biologists by demonstrating in mice that it is possible to use previously fertilized ova to produce disease-specific stem cell lines using somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) - commonly referred to as therapeutic cloning.

Researchers use therapeutic cloning to create functional tissue in cows

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:21:43 -0400

In a study, researchers obtained cow oocytes (donor eggs from cow ovaries) and removed and discarded the nuclei, which contain the cells' genetic material, leaving behind just the shell. A skin cell from the cow's ears was placed inside the egg shell and burst with electrical energy to expand the cell. That induced the one skin cell to become several cells. Bioengineered tissues were created from heart, skeletal muscle and kidney cells cloned from adult cow skin cells. The cloned cells were harvested, expanded in culture and transferred to three-dimensional molds. The molds were placed in incubators to allow the cells to attach and form tissue. The cell-mold structures were implanted back into the cows from which the initial skin cells were harvested. Miniature kidneys, skeletal and heart muscle tissues were cloned. The miniature kidneys were able to excrete metabolic waste products through a urinelike fluid. There was no rejection response to the cloned tissues. "The study is proof of principle that therapeutic cloning can be used to create tissues without the threat of rejection," said Anthony Atala, director of Tissue Engineering at Children's Hospital Boston, senior author on the paper, and associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School.

Discovery could aid in therapeutic cloning, clamping down on cancer

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:18:01 -0400

"Our focus is to understand the very first few steps that drive a cell to become an intestinal cell instead of a muscle cell," says Yang Shi, Harvard Medical School associate professor of pathology. Shi and his research team, working with worms, recently found a key molecule, CBP-1, that pushes young embryonic cells to become part of a specific organ or type of tissue. Though the molecule occurs in worms, it is similar to one found in humans. As such, the discovery, which was published in the January 2001 issue of the journal EMBO Reports, could have implications for cloning and cancer in human beings. "To do cloning in higher organisms you have to understand how tissues form," said Shi. "You have to know how pluripotent cells adopt specific cell fates.

Polarity gene yields clues to organization of cell signaling, structural growth

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:17:13 -0400

Researchers are beginning to understand how a gene called "stardust" works to set up the basic top-down architecture of the epithelial cells that line the gut, skin, and many other organs of an embryo. Working with Norbert Perrimon, Harvard Medical School (HMS) professor of genetics, Beth Stronach, HMS research fellow in genetics, has cloned the stardust gene. The two are working to understand the gene with colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco. Their discoveries, reported in the Dec. 6, 2001, issue of the journal Nature, could help researchers answer some of the fundamental questions of biology: How do cells send and receive signals? How do tissues and organs take shape? They could also hold clues to ongoing mysteries such as how cancers arise.