People with conditions such as heart disease or Parkinson’s could benefit from tissue grown with their own DNA
Lorraine Barnes suffered a heart attack in 2005 and has lived with the consequences – extreme exhaustion and breathlessness – ever since. “I was separated from my husband and so my children, Charlotte and James, had to grow up overnight because suddenly they were caring for me,” she says.
Charlotte agrees: “It turns your world upside down. I worry about my mum day and night, 24/7.”
Heart failure leaves Barnes, 49, “drowning and gasping for air”, she says. What really preys on her mind, though, is not her present difficulty but her future. “It scares me, as obviously I want to be around to see my children grow up.”
There is no cure for heart failure, the aftermath of a heart attack, and the condition is common. Every seven minutes a person has a heart attack in the UK, and some victims are left so weakened they can hardly walk a few metres.
It’s a grim scenario. But the prospects for patients like Barnes last week took a dramatic turn for the better when it was revealed that human cloning has been used for the first time to create embryonic stem cells from which new tissue – genetically identical to a patient’s own cells – could be grown.
Scientists have been working on such techniques (see box) for some time but their work has been hampered by the difficulties involved in cloning human cells in the laboratory. But the team led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov, of the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, got around this problem. By adding caffeine to cell cultures, their outputs were transformed. “We were able to produce one embryonic stem cell line using just two human eggs, which would make this approach practical for widespread therapeutic use,” said Mitalipov.
The development was hailed as a major boost for patients such as Barnes, who might benefit from tissue transplants – and not just heart attack patients but those suffering from diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and other conditions.
But the announcement was also greeted with horror. “Scientists have finally delivered the baby that would-be human cloners have been waiting for: a method for reliably creating cloned human embryos,” said David King of Human Genetics Alert. “It is imperative we create an international ban on human cloning before any more research like this takes place. It is irresponsible in the extreme to have published this.”
Several tabloid newspapers also carried banner headlines warning of the human cloning “danger”. Such reactions have a familiar ring. When the cloning of Dolly the Sheep was revealed in 1997 there was an outpouring of hysteria about the prospect of multiple Saddam Husseins being created in laboratories.
“At the time the chances of these horrors occurring – when scientists had not even created a single clone of a human cell – were remote,” said physiologist Professor Colin Blakemore of Oxford University. “Not that this worried the alarmists. The crucial point is that we should have spent the intervening time thinking about how we should react sensibly to the concept of a human clone when it does become possible. We have not done that and, although the science is still far off, it is getting closer. We need to ask, carefully and calmly: under what circumstances would we tolerate the creation of a human clone?”
At present such a creation is banned in Britain. No human embryo created by cloning techniques is allowed to develop beyond 14 days. “The research is very tightly regulated and I think there is little chance of a rogue laboratory creating a human clone,” said James Lawford Davies, a lawyer who specialises in health sciences. “However, many US states which, ironically, banned therapeutic cloning work because of their strong anti-abortion stances have laws that would permit human clones to develop into foetuses.”
Experts such as Professor John Harris, director of Manchester University‘s Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation, see positive benefits in reproductive cloning which could have a place in society. He said: “If you take a healthy adult’s DNA and use it to create a new person – by cloning – you are essentially using a tried and tested genome, one that has worked well for several decades for the donor. By contrast, a child born naturally has an 8% chance of succumbing to a serious genetic abnormality because of the random selection of their DNA. You can avoid that with a clone.”
The Latest Bing News on:
Human cloning
- Be aware of Artificial Intelligence Voice Cloningon April 26, 2024 at 1:19 pm
Voice cloning technology, powered by artificial intelligence, has opened up new avenues for fraud. One example involves impersonating someone's voice to authorize fraudulent transactions. For instance ...
- Enhancing Cybersecurity Defenses: The role of Voice Cloning in Penetration Testingon April 26, 2024 at 2:00 am
By Alex Serdiuk, CEO, Respeecher Newer and more impactful technological advancements are making the quest for foolproof cybersecurity measures more critical than ever. As organizations are doing ...
- Baltimore coach accused of using AI voice cloning to try to get a high school principal firedon April 25, 2024 at 1:59 pm
A former athletic director of a Baltimore high school has been arrested and charged with using an AI voice cloning service to frame the school’s principal.
- AI expert discusses concerns of voice cloning after arrest of Baltimore County athletics directoron April 25, 2024 at 1:34 pm
An artificial intelligence expert spoke with WJZ about AI-generated voice cloning and how concerned you should be about having your voice cloned without your permission.
- DeFake tool protects voice recordings from cybercriminalson April 22, 2024 at 10:56 am
In what has become a familiar refrain when discussing artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled technologies, voice cloning makes possible beneficial advances in accessibility and creativity while also ...
- Cloning in Koreaon April 19, 2024 at 4:59 pm
‘reproductive’ cloning - a term normally reserved for livebirth cloning - since a new human life was, however briefly, reproduced. That human life was grown in the laboratory, then destroyed ...
- FTC working to fight back against AI voice cloningon April 16, 2024 at 1:30 am
Cyber criminals are getting better all the time at cloning the human voice to create realistic calls that can be used to trick unsuspecting scam victims out of money and ...
- Cloning cult conned us out of £300,000on April 14, 2024 at 5:00 pm
She was willing to work on research involving the cells of dead people and was interested in proving that human cloning was possible,' said Mr Hunt. 'We didn't really care what her religion was ...
- OpenAI says voice cloning tool too risky to release, cites fears of ‘misuse’ in 2024 electionon April 1, 2024 at 8:18 am
OpenAI said it has developed a tool that can clone human voices from just 15 seconds of recorded audio — but it hasn’t yet released it to the public over fears that it will be misused ...
- OpenAI built a voice cloning tool, but you can’t use it… yeton March 29, 2024 at 10:00 am
Voice cloning apps can be — and have been — abused ... “We don’t want people to be confused between artificial voices and actual human voices.” And on that last point we can agree.
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Human cloning
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Human cloning” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
The Latest Bing News on:
Reproductive cloning
- The Black-Footed Ferret Is One Of North America's Most Endangered Mammals, But Scientists Recently Welcomed Two Cloned Twin Sisters Into The World In An Attempt To Save The Specieson April 26, 2024 at 8:00 am
I don’t know about you, but anytime I read news of an endangered animal species, I get depressed. It makes me incredibly anxious to see populations of beautiful animals dwindling because they can’t ...
- Scientists just cloned two endangered ferrets using frozen cells from 1988on April 25, 2024 at 6:34 am
Noreen and Antonia, two recently-born black-footed ferrets, are miraculous creatures. Scientists at US Fish and Wildlife Services (USFWS) used genetic material collected from a female ferret 45 years ...
- Georgia Institute of Technology: Aaron Levine Honored as AAAS Fellowon April 23, 2024 at 4:45 am
Aaron Levine, associate dean for research and outreach in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s ...
- 2 More Endangered Ferrets Have Been Cloned from Critter Frozen in the 1980son April 18, 2024 at 10:37 am
Two new black-footed ferret clones have been born over three years after a black-footed ferret became the first-ever endangered U.S. species to be cloned — and they used the same genetic material as ...
- Two endangered black-footed ferrets cloned from frozen tissue sampleson April 18, 2024 at 10:22 am
Noreen and Antonia, born last May, are among first cloned offspring of a native endangered species in the North America ...
- Two female ferrets, Noreen and Antonia, are latest clones of frozen 1980s critteron April 18, 2024 at 7:15 am
Black-footed ferrets were thought extinct until a Wyoming ranch dog found one in 1981.
- Mass. AG plans to go after AI scammerson April 17, 2024 at 2:02 pm
Attorney General Andrea Campbell wants to protect Massachusetts residents from scams involving voice cloning, deepfake videos and other applications of artificially intelligent technology — and hold ...
- Cloning makes three: Two more endangered ferrets are gene copies of critter frozen in 1980son April 17, 2024 at 1:29 pm
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says two more black-footed ferrets have been cloned from the genes used for the first clone of an endangered species in the U.S. These three slinky predators are gen ...
- Two more endangered ferrets are gene copies of critter frozen in 1980son April 17, 2024 at 6:29 am
Elizabeth Ann still lives at the National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center in Fort Collins, Colorado, but she's been unable to breed, due to a reproductive organ issue ... Szuszwalak wrote.
- FTC Releases 2023 Privacy and Data Security Updateon April 11, 2024 at 5:00 pm
As discussed here, the FTC recently announced that it is proposing changes to the Impersonation Rule to address the production of AI “deepfakes” that can impersonate individuals’ voices through voice ...
The Latest Google Headlines on:
Reproductive cloning
[google_news title=”” keyword=”reproductive cloning” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]