New Vistas in Mapping the Genome of Life

In the continuing quest to get one step closer to making man-made life a reality, genetic engineering researcher Dr. J. Craig Venter has announced that he and his team have manufactured the entire genome of a bacterium, through a clever "stitching together" of its chemical components, a feat being heralded as "watershed" for the emerging field called synthetic biology.
This genome is more than 10 times as long as the longest piece of DNA ever previously synthesized. What it means is the possibility of scientists to be able to one day design an organism on a computer, press the “print” button to have the necessary DNA made, and then put that DNA into a cell to produce a custom-made creature, a possibility certain to raise many ethics questions in the minds of scholars and laymen alike.

See details of this emerging technology in this from the NY Times.

Embryonic Stem Cells for Therapeutic Cloning in Humans

A California research team has become the first to report, and document, the cloning of a human embryo using donated oocytes (egg cells) and DNA from the cells of an adult donor.

The study has been published online by the journal "Stem Cells."

The experiments, using a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), provide key steps toward the development of patient-specific embryonic stem cells for use in developing new treatments for conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and spinal cord injury, among others. The lead author was Andrew J. French, Ph.D., of Stemagen Corp., a private company headquartered in La Jolla, Calif.

In the experiments, the researchers removed the nuclei of mature oocytes from healthy young women who had previously donated eggs for successful infertility treatments. The SCNT technique was then used to insert DNA from an adult male donor into the oocytes. The DNA was derived from a type of cell called fibroblasts, obtained from skin biopsies.

Subsequently, several of the reconstructed oocytes continued to develop as normal embryos, to the blastocyst stage. Extensive and carefully documented genetic tests were performed to confirm the genetic identity of the cloned embryos. In three embryos, tests showed the same DNA as the male fibroblast donor.

In one of the three cases, additional tests showed that the embryo had another type of DNA, called mitochondrial DNA, from both the female oocyte donor and the male DNA donor.

Mitochondrial DNA testing is viewed as an essential proof of successful human cloning -- particularly after previous fabricated reports from a South Korean research group.

The ability to generate stem cells using the patient's own DNA is significant in the treatment of currently incurable degenerative diseases, as well as for cell-based drug discovery. Previous studies reporting the development of cloned human embryos have used embryonic stem cells as the DNA donors.

While the study is an important step toward the development of stem cells for therapeutic cloning, much more research will be needed to confirm and extend the results.

UK will allow human-animal hybrids for stem cell research

On January 17, the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) granted two universities 1-year licenses to pursue the development of human-animal embryos for research purposes. This is a reversal of prior policy, which banned such transgenic experimentation.

The ultimate aim of this work will be to develop personalized stem cells that can be used to cure disease. The researchers will clone individuals with serious illnesses by inserting their DNA into enucleated cow and rabbit eggs, resulting in hybrid embryos from which stem cells can be extracted. The hybrid embryos are to be destroyed no later than 14 days after they are created. It is hoped that using patients' own DNA in this process will reduce (or, better still, eliminate) the risk of transplant rejection (graft vs. host disease) when the stem cells, or organs grown from them, are implanted in the patient's body.

The UK's approach sidesteps at least two issues that have been problematic for scientists in the US: (1) the destruction of human embryos question (because they're hybrids, not solely human), and (2) the problem of gathering a sufficient number of donated human ova for research purposes. It's at least a little bit interesting to note that public opinion in the UK generally favors this approach, even as the rejection of genetically modified "Frankenfoods" continues to be reported in the news there.

However, US opinion has been quite strongly against such transgenic experimentation, generally because of concerns of developing chimeras with human (or human-like) consciousness. Additionally, the requirement that the chimera embryos be destroyed within 14 days of creation is probably pretty close to unenforceable-which gives rise to the kinds of nightmare scenarios Margaret Atwood contemplated in Oryx & Crake ("baby orchards" for organ transplants).*

So: Does the HFEA's approach create more problems than it solves? Talk amongst yourselves.

News here: The Guardian, Financial Times


*And yes, that's another WBP Book Club selection! Go here for more info.