Kristie McNealy, MD

For the first time, scientists have succeeded in making cloned human embryos using human eggs and the nuclear material from adult skin cells. Researchers took human donor eggs and removed the nucleus, which contains the cell’s DNA. Next, they inserted the nucleus from adult male skin cells and then stimulated the cells to divide. In total, 5 balls of cells called blastocysts developed, and one was proven to be a genetic clone with no trace of the original donor egg DNA. While they haven’t yet been able to induce these balls of cloned cells to produce stem cells, the hope is that this technique can eventually be used to produce stem cells containing a persons own DNA.

Reference: A French, C Adams, L Anderson, J Kitchen, M Hughes and S Wood. Development of Human cloned Blastocysts Following Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) with Adult Fibroblasts. Stem Cells, Jan. 17, 2008; online edition.