Breakthrough could have major implications for stem cell treatments First time scientists have managed to create human embryos through cloning developed enough to provide stem cells Raises possibility of babies being cloned in the lab by rogue scientists
By Fiona Macrae Science Correspondent
PUBLISHED: 11:00 EST, 15 May 2013 | UPDATED: 13:59 EST, 15 May 2013
Scientists have cloned human embryos from slivers of skin and extracted precious stem cells from them.
The world first brings closer hopes that customised stem cells can be used to treat and even cure diseases from Alzheimers and Parkinsons to multiple sclerosis and paralysis.
However, it also raises the spectre of babies being cloned in the lab, with grieving couples paying for a duplicate child to be made for them.
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A donor egg held by pipette prior to nuclear extraction at the start of the radical new process
The same somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) technique was employed by researchers at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh to produce Dolly the Sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell.
During SCNT, a donor cell nucleus is transferred to an egg cell whose own nuclear DNA has been removed.
Read more from the original source:
Cloning fears as scientists create human embryos from SKIN in stem cell 'milestone'