Mouse cloned from a drop of blood!

Science has never ceased to amaze me.

For the first time, Scientists cloned a mouse from a single drop of blood. Unlike other cloning experiments, this clone lived a normal lifespan and was even able to give birth (many other clones have been infertile).

Why a mouse? Well mice are used in many scientific studies and many human ailments such as cancer and substance abuse. Since with this method, the donor does not need to be euthanized, it can be used to create “invaluable strains of mice” for use in laboratories. Mice are just one example, but this method can be used to create all sorts of animals, from milk producing cows, to even Woolly Mammoths and Sabre-Tooth Tigers.

The process is called somatic cell nuclear transfer which involved transferring the nucleus from an adult cell, which can be obtain from blood, into an unfertilized egg, basically replacing the egg’s nucleus with the adult one.

Of course, this new advancement doesn’t come without its usual backlash. We are all familiar with the controversy surrounding stem cell research for use in humans and with the idea of being able to bring back long extinct species with this type of cloning or creating animals for a specific purpose (farm work, lab research), it brings with it a whole new set of issues.

Via BBC