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Email: "Motor Neurone Disease Group Donates £800,000 for Human/Animal Hybrid Clone Research"

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BY LifeSiteNews.com By Hilary White NORTHAMPTON, May 24, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The UK’s Motor Neurone Disease Association has announced it will donate £800,000 (US $1,200,000) to fund human/animal “hybrid embryo” cloning research by the same Edinburgh University team that created “Dolly” the cloned sheep. The 3-year project, led by the team at the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine at Edinburgh University and headed by Dr. Ian Wilmut, hopes to develop human brain cells that carry the hereditary form of Motor Neurone Disease (MND) called TDP-43. The experiments will involve removing the nucleus of the gamete or “ova” of an animal, most likely a pig or cow, and inserting the nucleus taken from a donor patient. The resulting cloned human/animal hybrid embryos that survive will be cultivated for several days until they reach the stage at which embryonic stem cells are obtainable. These stem cells, the researchers say, can be used to create nerve cells that carry the TDP-43 gene. This form of cloning, called “somatic cell nuclear transfer” (SCNT) using both human and animal tissue, was approved for experimental use by the UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) in 2008. Dr. Wilmut’s prestige as the cloning scientist credited with the Dolly breakthrough lent authority to researchers' demand to create hybrid clones for embryonic stem cells, despite public outcry. The first HFEA license was granted to researchers at the Clinical Sciences Research Institute, University of Warwick, even before the government had passed legislation deciding whether the procedure could be legal. Dr. Wilmut, one of the world’s most prominent proponents of embryonic stem cell research, announced in 2007 that, with the development of a new technique to create embryo-like cells – called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells – he would no longer be pursuing nuclear transfer cloning. The team has already used the less controversial technique in their MND research, creating iPS cells from the skin cells of three MND patients which were changed into the TDP-43-bearing cells. Despite his 2007 declaration, however, Wilmut told the Scotsman yesterday: “The funding from the MND Association will help us to understand why specific nerves die in motor neurone disease. This is a critical next step towards the ultimate goal of developing an effective treatment.” A cure for MND is not the priority of this research, the team members admit; rather, the venture is expected to contribute to possible future treatments. “Slowing down the disease is our first aim, stopping the disease is the second, and the home run would be to repair and restore lost function,” said one of the lead researchers, Prof. Siddharthan Chandran. To contact the Motor Neurone Disease Association:PO Box 246,Northampton NN1 2PRPhone: 01604 250505Fax: 01604 624726/638289enquiries@mndassociation.org http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/motor-neurone-disease-group-donates-800000-for-human-animal-hybrid-clone-re/

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