Cloning Ban Passed by House Is Short-Sighted In Terms of Medical Potential, Says Dolly's Cloner.

Business Editors/Health & Medical Writers

BIOWIRE2K

LARCHMONT, N.Y.--(BW HealthWire)--Aug. 2, 2001

Use of Technology for Human Reproduction and for Research on

Disease Are Two Different Things, According to International Expert

A complete ban on cloning in the United States would prevent scientists from pursuing development of highly promising medical research that may hold the key to treatments for degenerative diseases such as diabetes, heart attacks, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, and liver damage from hepatitis as well as genetically transmitted diseases, says one of the world's foremost experts on cloning, Ian C. Wilmut, Ph.D., of the Roslin Institute, Midlothian, Scotland. Dr. Wilmut, who brought cloning into the inter-national spotlight in 1997 when his team successfully cloned a lamb named Dolly from an adult sheep, is editor of the quarterly journal Cloning & Stem Cells, published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com/clo).

"I welcome the proposal to regulate the use of cloning procedures in humans. However, it is important to distinguish between potential uses," said Dr. Wilmut, commenting on the far-reaching bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on July 31. The proposed legislation would ban cloning not only for reproduction but also for medical research, and would also outlaw sales of treatments developed thereby. It has not yet been voted on in the Senate. "Let us have ambitious research before we consider cautious application," advised Dr. Wilmut.

"While I personally find the whole idea of cloning a person abhorrent," he continued, "there are exciting and important medical opportunities to be gained from cloning to produce cells. Cloning has the potential to produce cells of specific immunotype that could be transferred into patients to treat diseases such as Parkinson's disease, heart attack, or liver damage caused by hepatitis. At present there are no fully effective treatments for these or many other degenerative diseases. Similar cells from patients with genetic diseases could also be produced for use in research to find new drugs to treat those diseases. But in order to pursue such important research, we must be able to test any new treatments for safety before they can be applied clinically, and cloning procedures to date are still inefficient; further research is required to obtain needed improvements."

Therapeutic cloning is legal in Britain. The House action marks the first time U.S. lawmakers have voted on cloning. The result does not bode well for proposed federal financing of studies on stem cells derived from human embryos, even studies limited to cells extracted from embryos that would otherwise be discarded by fertility clinics. Stem cells can be coaxed in the laboratory to grow into any type of tissue, and thus are widely regarded as building blocks for a new era of regenerative medicine in which doctors will heal patients using their own tissues. In fact, news of the House action came as reports of insulin production by Israeli scientists in tissue cultures from human embryonic stem cells pointed to exciting new possibilities for treatment of Type 1 diabetes, from which one million Americans suffer.

Cloning & Stem Cells is a quarterly peer-reviewed journal, published in print and online, that focuses on the latest progress in mammalian cloning and stem cell research. It covers original work in cloning and allied technologies such as germ line genetic engineering, tissue regeneration, transgenics, nuclear transfer, oocyte maturation, and molecular and cellular mechanisms regulating de-differentiation and nuclear reprogramming. It is indexed in Index Medicus/MEDLINE. A free sample issue may be viewed online at www.liebertpub.com/clo.

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in new and promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Tissue Engineering, Human Gene Therapy, Journal of Hematotherapy & Stem Cell Research, and e-biomed: The Journal of Regenerative Medicine. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 60 journals, books, and newsletters is available at www.liebertpub.com.