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Jul 24, 2009 | 3
Thanks to a little mouse named Tiny, researchers have now shown that full, living mammals can be grown from so-called induced pluripotent stem cells—cells from an adult that act in many ways like embryonic stem cells.
Xiao Xiao, as the rodent is called in its native Chinese, was one of dozens created from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) and born to a surrogate mother. The process is described in a study published yesterday in Nature (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group).
Researchers used a virus to deliver four genes into fibroblast cells taken from adult mice, triggering the change to iPS cells. These cells were then implanted into an embryo that didn’t have the requisite genetic information for it to develop beyond a placenta. That these implanted embryos developed into full baby mice proved that these cells could indeed do all the work of natural embryonic stem cells.
Apr 22, 2009 | 11
A controversial fertility doctor today told British reporters that he has cloned 14 human embryos and transferred 11 of them into the uteruses of four women. The physician, Panayiotis Zavos, who operates fertility clinics in Kentucky and Cyprus, says none of the embryos gave rise to successful pregnancies, but he is confident that baby cloning is just around the corner, The Independent reports.
"There is absolutely no doubt about it, and I may not be the one that does it, but the cloned child is coming," Zavos told The Independent, adding, "If we intensify our efforts we can have a cloned baby within a year or two."
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