CloningIn 1998, American researchers announced they have cloned calves that may produce medicinal milk. Dr James Robl at the University of Massachusetts and Dr Steven Stice of Advanced Cell Technology were the first to clone cows from fetal cells in which human genes were spliced into cattle DNA. Creating two identical, genetically engineered calves is a step towards the mass production of human drugs in animals. Their goal was to turn cows into drug factories, mass producing milk that contains human proteins important for treating human diseases. The scientists used a variation on the techniques previously used in Edinburgh, Scotland, to create the cloned sheep Dolly. Cows would be better producers of the proteins than sheep because they make more milk.Image: Clones George (left) and Charlie. |
