Researchers clone primate embryos

Written byBob Grant

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Scientists in Oregon claim to have successfully produced rhesus macaque embryos using somatic cell nuclear transfer with egg and skin cells taken from adult monkeys. __The Scientist__ first linkurl:reported;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/53290/ on this back in June when the head of the research team, Shoukhrat Mitalipov, presented the results at a stem cell meeting in Australia. The paper is published online today (November 14) on linkurl:Nature's;http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html website and is accompanied by a study showing verification of the results by an independent lab. Mitalipov and his collaborators managed to produce two embryonic stem cell lines from more than 300 oocytes they harvested from several monkeys. This represents only a 0.7 percent derivation efficiency, but this is the first time that scientists have produced embryonic stem cells using SCNT in animals other than mice, and the only instance of embryo cloning in primates. While these results advance the hope of creating patient-specific stem cell lines in humans, in the post-linkurl:Woo-Suk Hwang era,;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/22870/ Nature seems to be proceeding cautiously. The journal's press office sent out an email with news of the study's publication and a statement that reads, in part, "Due to continuing speculation about this work we are publishing today and lifting the embargo with immediate effect." British newspaper __The Independent__ linkurl:reported;http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article3152325.ece on the study earlier this week.

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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