»cloning«

Actually, mainstream media attributes Ian Wilmut, the British biotech star, the creation of the first ever cloned mammal Dolly. Of course, he was supported by a large team at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh. But now Ian Sample reports in the Guardian (11.3.2006) that Wilmut might not cloned sheep Dolly at all, but one of his peers did it. No good news for the credibility of science.

First Jan Hendrik Schön, now Hwang Woo Suk. The German hero in solid state physics, and the champion in cloning—both were considered to be short-listed for the next Noble Prize, and both faked their research at large.

As evidence appeared on the missing accuracy of recent research by stem cell pioneer Hwang Woo Suk of Seoul National University, it's clear now that he has faked his results. As the news agencies report and New Scientist writes, a University's review showed that results from 9 out of 11 cell lines were manipulated, and "the panel said Friday that it had found no records of two of the other stem cell lines Dr. Hwang claims to have created," the Associated Press notes. These 11 cell lines were claimed to be cloned from 11 patients and to be used for a basic understanding and future treatment of diseases ranging from injuries of the spinal cord and diabetes to immune deficiencies.

Check also the report in Science and Nature.

Anke Fossgreen writes in Süddeutsche Zeitung (19.4.2006) about the cloning of race and dressage horses. An Italian firm has specialized in the technique that resembles the cloning of the first mammal, the sheep Dolly. First step is to transfer some 250,000 euros, than mares are butchered to obtain about 2000 eggs of the ovaries. Fossgreen reports of a yield of 22 embryos. Anyway, breeding regulations are strict, as even IVF stallions are rejected in horse breeding.

Scientists are now picking up the pieces after the Hwang fraud who claimed of having successfully cloned human cells. Gretchen Vogel reports in Science (28.4.2006) about present activities in the U.S. and Europe. Ian "Dolly" Wilmut in Edinburgh and Christopher Shaw in London got approval to conduct human nuclear transfer experiments, in short cloning. In Spain, Miodrag Stojkovic leads another group. For some point, the groups have to restart from scratch. As a U.S. researcher puts it "It was necessary to spend some time unlearning some things that we thought we had learned from Hwang's research." The researchers are convinced that soon any of the groups will present results that Hwang had only fraudulently claimed. By cloning human cells and tissue they hope to earn a basic understanding of diseases like Diabetes, Parkinson's or Alzheimer's.