Stem cells + cloning

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Put genes into plasmid, and back into bacteria = DNA cloning

Therapeutic cloning = harvest of stem cells from cloned embryos that can be used to study human development and to potentially treat disease

Ethical problem: egg donation

To study human genetic diseases:

nucleus from a patient with disease (i.e. parkinsons)

cloned using SCNT to give lots of identical cells

used to study the genetics of the disease

*huge advantage of stem cell therapy is that the cells will not be immuno-rejected by the patient as they would be self

Issues:

Human SCNT requires human eggs

Effective therapeutic cloning would require thousands of eggs

potential of creating a human reproductive clone if blastocyst implanted

cost and inefficiency

transmission of animal viruses

moral and ethical concerns - outweigh all other considerations

Solution: reprogramming somatic cells without embryos

Induced pluripotent stem cells = can we take a differentiated cell and make it undifferentiated again? Problems - oncogenes (genetic mistake makes cells more susceptible to become a cancer cell)