—Richard Dawkins, British ethologist

***

Of Mice, Monkeys And Men

Stem Cells

1981 was a good year for mice. A science team isolated stem cells from lab rats. It meant the rodents could now hope to have their defective body parts repaired. How? Stem cells are building blocks found during early growth. So, let’s call them embryonic stem cells. They can turn into different types of tissue and can replace dead ones. A jar of stem cells in a cryogenic box might just be the antidote for a late-life mishap suffered from a fall: a broken arm, if you will. But humans have to await their turn in the primates’ order.

In 1995, monkeys made the cut to successfully get their stem cells removed. Three years later, researchers in University of Wisconsin and Johns Hopkins University plucked out human embryonic stem cells. But the process was tricky. One team derived their stem cells from the tissue of aborted foetuses. Another team from embryos created in the laboratory for couples seeking to get pregnant by in-vitro fertilisation. In the second case, the embryos had to be destroyed, killing the unborn baby. Pro-lifers came out against the experiment and the world has been split into two camps since then. Hence, all breakthroughs have been treated with caution. And scientists are playing it safe by confining their experiments to animals. In March this year, The Centre for Stem Cell Research at Christian Medical College, Vellore, succeeded in taking cells from adult mice and making them function like stem cells found in the human embryo. Only a beachhead has been created, a larger territory remains to be covered.

Laws on cloning

Brave New World

In the Sixth Day, released in 2000, when millennial angst was at its height, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character comes home to find a clone sitting with his family. In this dystopian sci-fi flick, Schwarzenegger goes on a hunt to find out the truth and bring the baddies to book. The movie glorified a future when cloning was illegal. In real life though, Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California, is toeing another line. In 2007, Schwarzenegger called for a tie-up between the University of California at Berkeley and Canada’s International Regulome Consortium to coordinate stem-cell research at both institutions.

Although no country has any major laws on cloning, Canada and France have come down hard on the practice. Anyone found to be rustling up stem cells in France will face up to 30 years in prison and a fine of 7.4 million euros. The Australian government, in 2008, handed out licences to create cloned human embryos.

In the US, President Barack Obama issued an executive order in March. Taxpayers in the US will have to fund embryonic stem-cell research. Even Obama is unsure of such leaps in the dark. “I can’t guarantee that we will find the treatments and cures we seek,” he said.

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Cloned Animals

Aboard Noah’s Ark

Can cloning ever be as glamorous as it is shown in the movies? Well, Dolly the sheep proved it could be—the first mammal to get a second life in 1996 mirrored our hopes for a long life. But the thrill was short-lived. Our shot at immortality just as easily got a reality check. Dolly, who was created from an adult cell, was put down in 2003, after she was found to be suffering from a lung disease.

But even before the highly popular Dolly, there was an Asian carp way back in 1963. In 1998, three cows were cloned. The same year saw a goat joining the livestock hall of fame. In 2000, came Cumulina, a mouse in Hawaii. The same year, first-year celebrations were in order for a litter of five piglets. The cloning of pigs opened the doors to making modified pigs, whose organs and cells can be transplanted into humans—yes, pigs are a rung above even rats in solving the worldwide organ shortage crisis.

Another unlikely animal that can help humans in getting one step closer to prolonging their lives are ferrets. A few polecats were cloned in 2004. They are useful for studying human respiratory diseases. The question of whether cloning can help endangered species and prolong human life can only be answered the day scientists have a fool-proof formula.

Quick Facts

• Researchers in Dubai successfully cloned a camel this April, an achievement in a region where racing camels are prized.
• In 2000, the first patents for cloning were awarded to the scientists who cloned Dolly. Their company, Geron Bio-Med, got exclusive rights to the
  technologies they used.
• In 2003, Britain became the first country to issue research licences for human embryonic cloning to create stem cells.
• Cloned animals age faster than normal animals.
• amphibians were first cloned from adult cells in 1962 by John Gurdon, a British biologist at Cambridge University, UK.
• After cloning a buffalo last year, the National Dairy Research Institute is set to clone endangered species, including Pashmina goats.
• Russia has decided to extend a ban on human cloning, which expired in 2007, by five years.
• In 2005, Hwang Woo Suk, who worked at Seoul National University, reported that he had developed stem-cell lines using cloned embryos from adults. He was later discredited by a panel of investigators.