The first article is titled “Dolly creator Prof Ian WIlmut shuns cloning”. It covers the key reasons behind the limitation of embryonic cloning. Professor Shinya Yamanaka pioneered a new method of extracting stem cells from non embryonic origins, and Professor Ian Wilmut is in favour of it, instead of the nuclear transfer method he used to create Dolly. The new method posed much more advantages over the method involving embryonic cells. Firstly, embryonic stem cells involve wastage of eggs, particularly human eggs which are in short supply. This was illustrated by Dr Shoukhrat Mitalipov from Oregon Health and Science University performed a study on rhesus monkeys. He used 304 eggs from the monkeys to generate only 2 lines of embryonic stem cells, and both eventually failed. Secondly, using stem cells derived from embryos involve the extermination of a potential life, which raises the concern of ethics.
The second article is “Stem cell research spells end for therapeutic cloning”. It covers the key reasons why new stem cell research methods will have limited success for therapeutic treatments. One such method, as mentioned previously, involves extracting cells from non embryonic origins. It is believed that this method will resolve ethical issues involving the use of human eggs, but its success and usefulness is still questionable. There were two distinct researchers which managed to perform “reverse engineering” on fully differentiated cells. One of them is Professor Shinya Yamanaka, who pioneered this technique and performed it on mice. Professor James Thomson is the other researcher who managed to obtain embryo-like cells by adding factors which induces the reversal of fully differentiated cells to embryo cells. He performed test on the embryo-like cells and concluded that they still have minor differences with true embryo cells, based on the expression of about 1000 genes. Both professors expressed that these cells are yet to be useful for current treatment, because the behavior of these cells are not well understood.
Apart from technical limitations, both professors have also expressed concern for the potential misuse of such technology. One example is the use of such technology by lesbian couples to have children.
References:
Highfield, R. (2008, November 10). Dolly creator Prof Ian Wilmut shuns cloning. Retrieved March 2, 2009, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/3314696/Dolly-creator-Prof-Ian-Wilmut-shuns-cloning.html.
Highfield, R. (2008, November 10). Stem cell research revolution spells end for therapeutic cloning. Retrieved March 2, 2009, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/3315273/Stem-cell-research-revolution-spells-end-for-therapeutic-cloning.html
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
i think that your summary is very written.You have summarised the main points of the articles. I think that you should also write down the definition of the relevant words and evaluate the article.
ReplyDelete