SCIENTISTS from Newcastle University are expected to be awarded Britain’s first licence to clone human embryos this month, after a meeting of the Government’s fertility watchdog yesterday.
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s research committee met to consider the Newcastle team’s application to become the first in Britain permitted to conduct “therapeutic cloning”.
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Though the five committee members did not reach a final decision, they are likely to approve the plan. Experts have already inspected the facilities at Newcastle’s International Centre for Life, where the work is to be carried out, and an announcement is expected by the end of the month.
The Newcastle team, led by Miodrag Stojkovic and Alison Murdoch, are seeking to clone human embryos from which they will create stem cells — master cells that can form any tissue in the body. As such stem cells are genetically identical to the adult from which they are cloned, the risk of rejection by the immune system would be substantially reduced when replacement tissue is transplanted into the body.
Dr Stojkovic wants to use the technique to develop new therapies for diabetes, but many other conditions, including paralysis, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, are expected to benefit from similar research.
Therapeutic cloning was explicitly permitted by Parliament in 2002, subject to researchers obtaining a licence.