Therapeutic cloning
If people think of the word “clone,” they sometimes witness horrific images of duplicate individuals, created in a kind of crazy science style. Indeed, many members of the public were appalled at the cloning experiment carried out in Scotland by “Dolly.“However, therapeutic cloning is entirely different and does not mean the development of a person perfectly copied. Reproductive cloning leads to a clone of a certain human. No sperm fertilization or the implantation of a fetus in the uterus is involved in therapeutically cloning.
A further term for a procedure called Somatically Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) is therapeutic cloning.
- A scientist extracts the nucleus from an egg
- The nucleus holds the genetic material for a human or laboratory animal
- The scientist then takes a somatic cell, which is anybody cell other than an egg or sperm, and also extract the nucleus from this cell.
Benefits
Mitochondrial disorder treatment:
Mutations in mitochondrial DNA cause an unusual type of heritage disorder characterized by epilepsy and blindness. A cloned baby could be produced without the disease, but without the genetic heritage of its parents, by removal of the nucleus – excluding the damaged mitochondria – from a normal embryo produced by in vitro fertilization and placed in a donated egg stripped of its nucleus.
Human cloned cells and testing of new drugs
Atomic experiments and the ability to extract and monitor their differentiation into various cell types of embryo stem cells from cloned human embryos present groundbreaking new biological and pharmaceutical opportunities. These methods allow human genetic conditions to be studied in totally new ways. Cloned human cells can be used in experimental drug research, or they may be used for cell therapy to cure diseases due to cell growth defects, e.g. Motor Neuron Disease (MND).
Stem Cell therapy
Produced cells can eventually be utilized for the development of organs, called regenerative medicines, during cell transplantation. Cell transplant treatment is used to treat or avoid a disease or condition Stem Cell therapy.
In almost every cell in the body, mitochondria are the smaller compartment that transforms food into useable energy. Genetic defects in mitochondria, however, hinder the organism from sustaining a regular heart rhythm. The systems only have a mother’s DNA and do not alter their appearance or personality. In an updated IVF version, the technique developed at Newcastle combines a donor’s balanced mitochondria with both parents’ DNA. It generates 0.1 percent of the DNA of their second wife and reflects a life-long transformation which will reflect over the years.
