Transcript Cloning Power Point

By: Ryan Rose
I am interested in cloning because it is hard
to believe that you can make a copy of yourself, but it
only has your physical characteristics.
It is also interesting how they make a clone
and put the different cells together.
Before I began to research cloning, I knew that a clone only
has the physical characteristics of the being’s cells that made it. A
clone doesn’t have the mental characteristics of the being who’s
cells it came from, because it is born as a new animal or person with
its own soul, giving it its own interests and thoughts.
When I started researching
cloning I hoped to learn how cloning
really worked and why people feel that
it is unethical and why some people
feel that it is a way to help advance
technology.
John Gurdon was the first scientist
to clone tadpoles in the 70’s. Ian Wilmut
and his colleagues of Roslin Institute in
Edinburgh, Scotland, cloned Dolly the
sheep in 1997, though it took 276 attempts
to be successful.
According to a CNN report, Professor Hwang
Yoon-Young of Hanyang University in South Korea
cloned a human embryo and extracted the stem cells
from it. Scientists say that the technique is not to make
babies, but to further therapeutic cloning, a process
that is a possible cure for many diseases, such as
diabetes, spinal cord injuries, and Parkinson’s disease.
Dr. Rudolph Jaenisch said “The experiment
proved that cloning is possible using human cells.”
The only problem, according to opponents, is that the
embryos are destroyed after the stem cells have been
removed, destroying a human life.
Cloning is relevant to today’s world
because it can be used to “grow” new organs and
reproduce historical scientists, artists, and authors,
such as Albert Einstein, and to mass produce
clones of animals and plants that produce
important medicines. Sheep have been engineered
to produce human insulin. Cloning can also be
used for couples that cannot conceive naturally
and to produce rare plants.
I have learned there are three different types of cloning:
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) Cloning-the transfer of a
DNA fragment of interest from one organism to a selfreplicating genetic element. Basically, DNA Cloning is the cloning
of genes or other chromosomes for further research.
Scientists that want to study a certain gene usually make
multiple copies of that gene using bacterial plasmids, selfreplicating extra-chromosomal circular DNA molecules, that are
distinctly different from the normal bacterial genome. Genes and
other chromosomes are copied to make enough samples for further
study. In order to clone a gene, a fragment of DNA containing the
specific gene that you are studying is removed from chromosomal
DNA using restriction enzymes and then merged with a plasmid that
has been cut with the same restriction enzymes. When the piece of
chromosomal DNA is united with its cloning vector, or carrier, it’s
called a recombinant DNA molecule. After the introduction into
appropriate host cells, the recombinant DNA can be cloned with the
host DNA.
Reproductive Cloning- is a technology that’s
used to make an animal that has the exact same DNA of
a living or previously living animal.
In a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer,
scientists moved the genetic material from the nucleus of a
cell of an adult donor to an egg that has had its nucleus and
genetic material removed. The reconstructed egg
containing DNA from a donor cell must be treated with,
either, chemicals or electrical current to stimulate cell
division and then it is transferred to a female’s uterus, where
it continues to develop until birth.
Dolly the sheep was cloned using reproductive
cloning in 1997 by Ian Wilmut and his team of researchers
at Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, Scotland, and died, February
14, 2003, of lung cancer and crippling arthritis. Dolly had
given birth to 6 lambs the natural way before her death.
Therapeutic Cloning- the cloning of human
embryos for scientific research. The goal of this
therapeutic process isn’t to make babies, but to get stem
cells that can be studied to treat disease, such as heart
disease, Alzheimer's, cancer, diabetes, and spinal cord
injuries. The stem cells are important to researchers
because they can be used to make any specialized cell
in the human body.
Stem cells are removed from the egg after it has
divided for five days, the egg at this stage of
development is called blastocyst. The process destroys
the embryos, bringing in the ethical concerns.
In November 2001. scientists at Advanced Cell
Technologies, a biotechnology company in
Massachusetts, said that they had cloned the first
human embryo, but the results were limited in success.
Recently, South Korea was successful in cloning a
human embryo.