The first Human Cloned Embryo
Article written by: Jose B. Cibelli, Robert P. Lanza and Michael D West, with Carol Ezzell

(summary)


     Parthenogenesis is a process of generating human embryos from only eggs put therapeutic cloning within reach
     On October 13, 2001 the scientist of Advance Cell Technology come to see that their laboratory cells were dividing, the first human embryos were cloning.
     The scientists were hoping for the cells to divide into 100 or so cells called blastocysts. They wanted to take these blastocysts and have them grow to replace nerve, muscle and other tissues. But only one of them came to the Six-cell stage and by then it stopped dividing. They had done a similar procedure they had eggs grow without sperm to fertilize, to develop parthenogenetically into blastocysts they think that using these to procedures together they could achieve human cloning.
     In 2001 scientist attempted to create a cloned human embryo, they had consulted all the necessary sources before getting the “ok” to begin “creating”. Then they had to find a female subject to donate eggs. To start the process of cloning they need to use a very fine needle and get the genetic information from a mature egg. Then they inject it into the nucleus of a donor cell. The female donors were asked to take psychological and physical tests to screen for diseases and what not.
     Cloning was first attempted last July, because it depended on the menstrual cycles of the subjects, the subjects also had to take hormones so that they would ovulate 10 or so eggs at once.
     They seemed to have had a touch of success when the nucleus of a fibroblast had appeared to divide but it never completed. It took 71 eggs from seven volunteers before they could create their first cloned embryo. Out of the eight eggs with cumulus cells, two of them divided to form early embryos of four cells and another went to at least six cells before it stopped growing.
     The main reason scientist are so eager to grow these embryos is mainly because they want to see a global effect of curing the incurable, such as nervous and cardiovascular systems and on diabetes.
     Once they are able to get nerve cells from cloned embryos hey hope to heal damaged spinal cords and to treat brain disorders

-Scientific american Summary