Human cloning started in China

Bard

From http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992012 :

Dozens of human embryos cloned in China


Chinese scientists are claiming a great leap forward in human cloning - the creation of dozens of cloned embryos advanced enough to harvest embryonic stem cells.

Their intention is not to copy human beings, but create genetically matched cells to make tissues for transplant patients and for research. The work has not yet been reported in any peer-reviewed journal but Lu Guangxiu of the Xiangya Medical College revealed details of her work in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. Experts familiar with her work say that three or four other Chinese labs have made similar or greater strides forward.

Another team based at Shanghai No. 2 Medical University claims to have derived stem cells from hybrid embryos composed of human cells and rabbit eggs.

Xiangzhong "Jerry" Yang, a Chinese-born cloning scientist now at the University of Connecticut at Storrs, says he has been aware of the advances being made in China for a long time.

"These are credible people," he says. "I've encouraged them to publish in peer-reviewed journals so that they receive credit and the world knows about their accomplishments."


Racing ahead


The announcement lends weight to concerns of many cloning scientists that while the research in the US and UK has been bogged down by political and ethical concerns, it may be racing ahead elsewhere in the world.

"It takes the air out of the argument that by passing laws here we can stop the technology from moving forward," says Robert Lanza of Massachusetts-based Advanced Cell Technology.

This is not the first report of human cloning experiments. In 1998, researchers from South Korea claimed to have grown a cloned embryo to the four cell stage before destroying it. And Clonaid, a company set up by a UFO cult, also claims to be making advances.

Lanza's ACT recently published a journal paper on cloning human embryos with the intention of harvesting embryonic stem cells (ESCs). However that proved impossible since their embryos were only able divide into a few cells.

Lu's team claims to have grown their embryos to a 200 cell "blastocyst" stage, large enough to harvest ESCs. Lanza says he is not at all surprised his Chinese competitors have made such progress.

"Cloning is a numbers game," says Lanza. "They had access to far greater numbers." In cloning, a cell is fused with an egg from which the genetic material is removed. Given the difficulty of obtaining human eggs and informed consent in the US, ACT was only able to construct 19 embryos for their experiment.


Leftover eggs


But regulations are far less restrictive in China. Lu, who directs a large fertility clinic, simply asked some of the dozens of women who walked through her door each day to donate their leftover eggs. She claims that now five per cent of her cloned embryos develop to blastocysts.

From these, her team has harvested what they believe are ESCs and grown them for three generations in the laboratory. ESCs are able to develop into any cell type in the body.

If verified, the work is a major step forward, but it is not yet clear whether the cells they have grown are of any medical value, or indeed if they are ESCs.

Many human cells have the capacity to grow in the laboratory for several generations. To convince other scientists she has found ESCs, Lu will need to grow the cells through many more cycles, perhaps for as long as a year. She will also need to verify the cells have the molecular signatures of ESCs.

Thoughts, anyone?

bonkey

Originally posted by Bard
Thoughts, anyone?

Once China, or some other nation performing such research gets some tangibly useful results, I'm curious to see how long the US will uphold its stance against this type of research in the face of a potentially massive economic and medical gain which they will be excluded from.

jc

Hobbes

Personally I thought England would be the first, but there you go.

Typedef

Just on what bonkey said.
I would say the Americans are probably experimenting in the field of cloning humans, but simply do not admit to it. During the time the CIA was not allowed to asassinate people abroad, asassinations were still carried out, but simply not admitted to in the US, I would say the same could be said for cloning in this instance. Look at the arms race, clearly we are now witnessing the epoch of the genetics race.

bonkey

Originally posted by Typedef
I would say the Americans are probably experimenting in the field of cloning humans, but simply do not admit to it. During the time the CIA was not allowed to asassinate people abroad, asassinations were still carried out, but simply not admitted to in the US, I would say the same could be said for cloning in this instance. Look at the arms race, clearly we are now witnessing the epoch of the genetics race.

At present, if I understand the situation corectly, government fundiong is not available for this area of genetic research, but the testing itself is not banned. However, the current administration is trying to take steps to have it banned.

This would leave two hypotheses :

1) The US military or services want it for themselves for some reason
2) The US is actually going to ban this stuff.

Personally, I cant see much sense to the former option. Bear in mind that we are talking about civilian research - so its not really comparable with CIA "dirty ops".

jc

Thorbar

Haven't you heard? The CIA are growing armies of super clones who will invade the globe and destroy all possible terriorist organisations which includes pretty much everyone.

strat

i can see it now...
"Why give up smoking when you can get a set of brand new lungs i identical to the ones u had 20 years ago!!"

:rolleyes:

bonkey

Originally posted by StrataGIST
i can see it now...
"Why give up smoking when you can get a set of brand new lungs i identical to the ones u had 20 years ago!!"

But wait, there's more.

If you buy today, we will also include an immuno-compatible pigs liver, absolutely FREE!

jc

Biffa Bacon

Down this road only lies disaster.

Shinji

This would leave two hypotheses :

1) The US military or services want it for themselves for some reason
2) The US is actually going to ban this stuff.

Actually, you forgot a third one.

3) The current US administration, having been elected off the back of some pretty damn right-wing thinking, can't be seen to support something the church has condemned. But that doesn't mean all research will stop, because there are people there clever enough to see how "dangerous" it would be for other nations to outstrip US medical research by a few decades...


obTopic: we're going to see more and more of this coming from China. They're not in the dark ages any more (well, er, bits of it anyway). Their science will outstrip ours in the areas where the often ill-informed Western public have forced slowdown through public outcry and tabloid-led whinging.

Xterminator

I would just like to point out tha there are some very paranoid people posting in this thread.
There is no reason not to take the US, and Britain at there word as to what is or is not allowed.

It was only a matter of time before this kind of thing happened, and of couse the less regulated areas will be on the cuting edge, (any one ever read William Gibson).

At the end of the day the treatments and organs developed will initally only be on sale to the very rich, (to recoup expendature) but the advanced treatments will filter down to the wealthy midlle classes etc. Simple economics.

X

PiE

I think there are plenty of reasons to be sceptical of the US "banning" human clone testing. The possible gains (military, economic & social) involved in succeeding in it would far outweigh any losses from public out-cry.

They'll just pretend they aren't researching it for a few years until the notion of cloning a human has seeped into the publics psyche and won't seem so preposterous.