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To Get Around One Issue, Try Out Another

Jun 13, 2007

Ian Wilmut, the researcher who cloned Dolly the sheep back in 1996, suggests that the way around the ethical and legal issues of using human embryonic stem cells is to grow stem cells up from animal eggs. When a nucleus from a person's cell is injected into an animal egg (whose own nucleus has been removed), a bunch of human stem cells begin to grow, he explains. This only occurs, though, about 12 percent of the time and has the added problem of using an animal egg to produce human tissue.

Breaking News
The Scan

Pig Organ Transplants Considered

The Wall Street Journal reports that the US Food and Drug Administration may soon allow clinical trials that involve transplanting pig organs into humans.

'Poo-Bank' Proposal

Harvard Medical School researchers suggest people should bank stool samples when they are young to transplant when they later develop age-related diseases.

Spurred to Develop Again

New Scientist reports that researchers may have uncovered why about 60 percent of in vitro fertilization embryos stop developing.

Science Papers Examine Breast Milk Cell Populations, Cerebral Cortex Cellular Diversity, Micronesia Population History

In Science this week: unique cell populations found within breast milk, 100 transcriptionally distinct cell populations uncovered in the cerebral cortex, and more.