2023-09-11 19:21:00
London: Scientist Sir Ian Wilmot (79), who made history by cloning the sheep Dolly, has died. He was under treatment for Parkinson’s disease since 2018. In 1997, he created Dolly through cloning. Dolly was the first mammal born through cloning.
Wilmot was a scientist at the Rosslyn Institute in Scotland. Dolly was born from a cell taken from the udder of a six-year-old sheep. Wilmot and his team made history with Dolly following 276 failed attempts to clone it. Dolly was born on 5th July 1996. However, her birth was announced to the world only on February 6, 1997. What the researchers did was to remove the nucleus from an unfertilized egg and implant the nucleus in a cell taken from the inside. The embryo is created by cell division in a specially arranged system in the laboratory. This was then implanted in the uterus of another goat. Wilmot and his team made the crucial discovery that an adult mammalian cell might be transformed into an embryonic state.
Dolly’s sisters, Debbie, Denise, Diana and Daisy, were later created. They were born from the cells separated for Dolly.
Dolly died of lung disease when she was six years old. One human year is equivalent to seven years of life in goats. Therefore, scientists believe that Dolly died at the age of six, before reaching old age.
Following this, Wilmot and his team later studied the health problems caused by cloning. He also conducted research into stem cell therapy. He was hoping that stem cell treatment would be a cure for diseases including Parkinson’s. Meanwhile, in 2018, he informed the world that he too was suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
Controversy following Dolly
Wilmot’s position was that luck was the main factor behind Dolly’s creation. But religious leaders have come forward questioning the morality of cloning a creature. It was accused of subverting the natural process by which male and female sex cells combine to form an embryo and they are then born male or female.
There were many discussions in the scientific world as well. The main reason was Dolly’s “untimely” death. One argument was that Dolly’s cells were six years old when she was born, as she was born from the cells of a six-year-old goat. Some even claimed that it might lead to premature aging. There have been researches on this too.
Later it was found that though cloning results in the duplication of the organism, there are differences in body structure and behavior. Dolly gave birth to four lambs. On December 22, 2001, scientists at the University of Texas cloned a kitten. In 2004, scientists in South Korea cloned a human embryo. This embryo was cultured for up to one week and discarded. The technology of growing organs like kidney, heart and liver needed for humans in pigs was also tested later.
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