Ian Wilmut, Dolly The Sheep Clone Creator Dies At Age 79 (image-www.ed.ac.uk)
Professor Sir Ian Wilmut, the scientist who led the team at Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburg which created the Dolly the sheep dies at the age of 79.
Dolly was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell. Prof Wilmut laid the foundations for stem cell research. The technology aims to cure many diseases by enabling the body to regenerate damaged tissue.
Her birth proved that the specialized cells could be used to create an exact copy of the animal they came from. This knowledge changed what scientists thought was not possible and opened up a lot of possibilities in biology and medicine, including the development of personalised stem cells known as Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (IPS) cells, as per the report published by Edinburg University.
Creation of Dolly is considered to be a huge milestone and a great scientific achievement, Prof Wilmut led the team consisting of many different people including, scientists, embryologists, surgeons, vets and farm staffs.
Dolly was cloned from a cell taken from the mammary gland of a six-year-old Finn Dorset sheep and an egg cell taken from a Scottish Blackface sheep. The process of cloning involves putting DNA from the adult cells into an empty sheep’s egg which is then stimulated externally using electricity and chemicals, the embryo is later then implanted into a surrogate sheep.
On 5th July 1996, Dolly was born to her Scottish Blackface surrogate mother. But the birth was kept under wrap till the research paper was prepared.
But the creation of Dolly stirred up some controversies initially as the officials feared this would eventually will lead to human cloning. US President Bill Clinton even announced he was banning human cloning as a result.
Dolly died in 2003 after living to age 6, around half the typical 10-to-12-year lifespan of a sheep.
Sir Ian was knighted in the 2008 New Year Honours list for services to science at the Palace of Holyrood House in Edinburgh. He retired from the University of Edinburgh in 2012 and revealed a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease six years later.
