Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Friday 26 January 2018

Scientists successfully clone monkeys; are humans up next?

By MALCOLM RITTER scientists implanted 79 em- age of human cloning in-
AP Science Writer bryos to produce the two volves making a copy of
NEW YORK (AP) — For the babies. Still, the approach someone already born.
first time, researchers have succeeded where others That might be possible
used the cloning technique had failed. Poo said that someday, but “I don’t think
that produced Dolly the was because of improve- it should be pursued,” said
sheep to create healthy ments in lab techniques researcher Dieter Egli of
monkeys, bringing science and because research- Columbia University. “I
an important step closer to ers added two substances can’t think of a strong ben-
being able to do the same that helped reprogram the efit.” Henry Greely, a Stan-
with humans. DNA from the fetus. That let ford University law profes-
Since Dolly’s birth in 1996, the DNA abandon its job sor who specializes in the
scientists have cloned in the fetus, which involves implications of biomedi-
nearly two dozen kinds of things like helping to make cal technologies, said the
mammals, including dogs, collagen, and take on the strongest argument he can
cats, pigs, cows and polo new task of creating an think of would be the de-
ponies, and have also cre- entire monkey. The Chi- sire of grieving parents to
ated human embryos with nese researchers said clon- produce a genetic dupli-
this method. But until now, In this undated photo provided by the Chinese Academy ing of fetal cells could be cate of a dead child. But
they have been unable to of Sciences, cloned monkeys Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua sit combined with gene edit- he doubts that’s a com-
make babies this way in pri- together with a fabric toy. ing techniques to produce pelling enough reason to
mates, the category that Associated Press large numbers of monkeys undertake the extensive
includes monkeys, apes development, but one that and Poo said society would with certain genetic de- and costly effort needed
and people. requires urgent ethical de- ban it for ethical reasons. fects that cause disease in to get such a procedure
“The barrier of cloning pri- bate. Instead, he said, the goal is people. The animals could approved, at least for “de-
mate species is now over- Archbishop Vincenzio Pa- to create lots of genetically then be used to study such cades and decades.”
come,” declared Muming glia, head of the Pontifical identical monkeys for use diseases and test treat- Marcy Darnovsky, execu-
Poo of the Chinese Acad- Academy for Life, said sci- in medical research, where ments. The researchers said tive director of the Center
emy of Sciences in Shang- entific progress must have they would be particularly their initial targets will be Al- for Genetics and Society in
hai. In a paper released as its goal prioritizing hu- valuable because they are zheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Berkeley, California, called
Wednesday by the journal man life, and said this could more like humans than oth- Mitalipov, noting the Chi- it unethical to subject that
Cell, he and his colleagues allow cloned animals to be er lab animals such as mice nese failed to produce new child to “the psycho-
announced that they suc- designed for medical ex- or rats. healthy babies from adult logical and emotional risks
cessfully created two ma- perimentation. The process is still very inef- cells, said he suspects at- of living under the shadow
caques. The female baby But he warned that many ficient — it took 127 eggs tempts to clone babies of its genetic predecessor.”
monkeys, about 7 and animal lives were lost in to get the two babies — from a human adult would Human cloning could also
8 weeks old, are named reaching the milestone and so far it has succeed- also fail. “I don’t think it require many women to
Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua. and that “we must always ed only by starting with a would be advisable to any- donate eggs and to serve
“It’s been a long road,” said consider the effect of our monkey fetus. The scientists one to even think about it,” as surrogates, she said.
one scientist who tried and interference in the eco- failed to produce healthy he said. At the moment, because
failed to make monkeys system and evaluate the babies from an adult mon- Jose Cibelli, a scientist at of safety concerns, federal
and was not involved in the risks.” Poo said the feat key, though they are still Michigan State University, regulators in the U.S. would
new research, Shoukhrat shows that the cloning of trying and are awaiting the said it might be techni- not allow making a human
Mitalipov of Oregon Health humans is theoretically pos- outcome of some preg- cally possible someday, baby by cloning, and inter-
& Science University. “Final- sible. But he said his team nancies. Dolly caused a but “criminal” to try now national scientific groups
ly, they did it.” has no intention of doing sensation because she was because of the suffering also oppose it, said bio-
The Vatican’s top bioethics that. Mainstream scientists the first mammal cloned caused by the many lost medical ethics expert In-
official said Thursday that it generally oppose making from an adult. The pro- pregnancies the process soo Hyun of Case Western
was an important scientific human babies by cloning, cedure was technically entails. If the procedure Reserve University in Cleve-
challenging. Essentially, became efficient enough land. People for the Ethical
the Chinese scientists re- in monkeys, he said, soci- Treatment of Animals con-
moved the DNA-contain- ety could face “a big ethi- demned the monkey-clon-
ing nucleus from monkey cal dilemma” over whether ing experiments.
eggs and replaced it with to adapt it for humans. The “Cloning is a horror show:
DNA from the monkey fe- key step of transferring DNA a waste of lives, time and
tus. These reconstituted might be combined with money — and the suffer-
eggs grew and divided, gene editing to correct ge- ing that such experiments
finally becoming an early netic disorders in embryos, cause is unimaginable,”
embryo, which was then allowing healthy babies to PETA Senior Vice President
placed into female mon- be born, he said. Kathy Guillermo said in a
keys to grow to birth. The Of course, the familiar im- statement.q