Monkey Cloning: Are humans next?

Human cloning has taken a step closer to reality. While this is the first case of a cloned monkey, it proves that primate cloning is possible.

Scientists at the Oregon National Primate Research Centre have confirmed that they have been successful in producing cloned embryos from a 10 year old male rhesus macaque monkey.

While cloning of primates has been achieved in the past using a method of embryo splitting, this is the first time the technique used in cloning Dolly the sheep has been successful. The previous method was more of a manner of producing a ‘controlled twinning’ rather than a genetic copy of a living creature.

What is Embryo Splitting?

Embryo splitting is a method often used for cloning cattle. First, a sperm cell is caused to fertilise an egg and then the embryo is allowed to divide. When the embryo has split into eight cells it can be coaxed to break apart into four identical two-celled embryos. Each of these embryos are genetically identical – they are all clones of each other in the same way in which twins are.

What is the ‘Dolly’ method?

The technique used to clone Dolly the sheep in 2003 involved the use of a cell removed from an adult sheep.

Basically, an unfertilised egg cell is selected and then has it’s nucleus removed. The cell nucleus is the part of the cell which contains the DNA, the genetic code.

A cell other than an egg or sperm cell is then taken from an adult animal, and it’s nucleus is removed as well. The nucleus from the second cell is then inserted into the first.

Once zapped with a small charge of electricity the new cell has the potential to behave like an embryo, with normal cell division. This new embryo can be implanted into a host mother and may eventually grow and be born as an identical genetic copy of the individual from which the nucleus was removed.

The process is difficult. The scientists at the Roslin Institute who cloned Dolly the sheep made 276 attempts before succeeding. Only 29 of the 277 attempts resulted in a functioning embryo – and only one of these embryos implanted in a host mother resulted in Dolly.

Why Would We Want to Create Human Clones?

Often when we hear the word ‘clone’ what we imagine is a living, breathing, talking person – a person genetically identical to the individual from which their DNA came from. Generally, scientists are less interested in creating this type of clone. What is of interest, however, are the cells which are present in the cloned embryo. These are called stem cells.

Read on to find out about stem cells and beyond....