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The Science and Application of Cloning

The report in February 1997 that scientists in Scotland had cloned a sheep, Dolly, led to much public discussion of "cloning" of animals and speculation about the possibility of cloning humans. The term "cloning" is used by scientists to describe many different processes that involve making duplicates of biological material. In most cases isolated genes or cells are duplicated for scientific study, and no new animal results. This type of cloning, using genes and cells, has led to many medical advances such as providing insulin to treat diabetes and therapies for hemophilia. The sheep experiment was different; it used a cloning technique called "somatic cell nuclear transfer" and resulted in an animal that was a genetic twin—although delayed in time—of an adult sheep. This technique of transferring a nucleus from a somatic cell into an egg that produced Dolly was an extension of experiments that had been ongoing for over 40 years. These experiments were aimed at understanding how development of an animal from a single fertilized egg is carried out. In recent years the agricultural industry has been trying to improve nuclear transplantation cloning to facilitate the breeding of desirable livestock and some biotechnology companies are exploring ways to use nuclear transfer cloning to improve the production of therapeutic drugs. In addition to drug production, understanding the details of nuclear transplantation cloning might lead to new therapies to treat human disease. For instance it might be possible to grow human cells and tissues for transplantation and grafts that would not be rejected after transfer, as they often are today. These kinds of benefits are currently only hypothetical and much additional research will be needed in animal systems. Although the birth of Dolly was lauded as an amazing success, in fact the procedure is not perfected. Only one sheep was produced from over two hundred nuclear transfers. In addition, it is not yet clear whether Dolly is normal or whether she could have subtle problems that might lead to serious diseases. Using this technique to produce a human child might result in, for example, malformations or disease due to problems inherent in the technique. Thus, while using animals to understand the biological process that produced Dolly holds great promise for future medical advances, there is no current scientific justification for attempting to produce a human child at this time with this technique.