Previous Next Index Thread

XENOME - Scientists Clone Sheep

Sent from: magdalen@teleport.com (tiffany lee brown)

> Date: Wed, 6 Mar 1996 17:24:20 -0800
> Sent-From: jet@abulafia.genmagic.com (J. Eric Townsend)

NEW YORK (AP) -- In a feat never before accomplished in mammals,
scientists have found a way to turn a laboratory dish full of cells
into hundreds of genetically identical sheep.

Scientists in Scotland took cells from an embryo, grew thousands of
copies in the lab and then used copies to produce sheep from ewes.

Experts said if the technique can be perfected, it will be a major
gain in the ability to make genetic changes in livestock for research
and to quickly produce animals that give more or better milk or meat,
resist diseases or display other desirable traits.

``It is a great achievement,'' commented Robert H. Foote, professor
emeritus of animal physiology at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

The work was reported in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature by Ian
Wilmut, Keith Campbell and colleagues at the Roslin Institute near
Edinburgh, Scotland. The institute does agricultural research on
animals, with government and industry funding.

Currently, scientists can produce genetically identical farm animals
by such techniques as breaking a single embryo into pieces and
implanting each piece in a womb to form a new animal. But that
approach yields fewer than 20 copies, rather than hundreds.

Scientists can already plant genes into farm animals by injecting the
genetic material into fertilized eggs. But the new technique can
generate thousands of cells to receive genes, giving scientists many
more chances to achieve successful gene transfers.

As a result, scientists would be able to insert genes more precisely,
swap new genes for old or inactivate particular genes in an animal,
said animal gene expert Caird Rexroad Jr.

That would offer major advantages for studying farm animal genetics
and eventually producing better barnyard stock, said Rexroad, research
leader at the Gene Evaluation and Mapping Laboratory at the
U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service in
Beltsville, Md.

The new work has ``put us a step closer to doing that,'' he said.

Mass-producing hundreds of animals is still years away, Wilmut said,
because the technique is currently much too inefficient. The Nature
paper reports the birth of only five lambs from hundreds of attempts.

Wilmut said he believes the technique could also be used eventually
for cattle. For other species, like pigs, goats and poultry, the
prospects are less clear because of differences in the biology of
early development, he said.

Wilmut also said he doesn't know if it would work in people, adding
that many scientists would consider this application unethical.

For the research, scientists isolated cells from sheep embryos and
grew them in laboratory dishes. The cells grew into colonies, which
were repeatedly split up to form more and more cells.

Then the researchers took unfertilized eggs from ewes, pulled out the
egg's genes, and fused the eggs to the laboratory-grown cells. These
cells supplied the genes for the eggs, which were placed in ewes to
grow into embryos and eventually be born.
>From info  Thu Mar 14 05:58:44 1996
Received: from ego.psych.mcgill.ca (ego.Psych.McGill.CA [132.206.106.211]) by fringeware.com (8.6.9/8.6.9) with ESMTP id FAA09809 for <email@fringeware.com>; Thu, 14 Mar 1996 05:58:42 -0600
Received: (from chris@localhost) by ego.psych.mcgill.ca (8.6.9/8.6.6) id HAA02492; Thu, 14 Mar 1996 07:02:31 -0500
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 07:02:30 -0500 (EST)
>From: Chris Westbury <chris@ego.psych.mcgill.ca>
To: email@fringeware.com
>Subject: NET - Third Reich meets Fifth Wave
Status: RO

I don't know if FringeWare wants to involve itself in taking a 
stand against racism on the Net but if it does maybe you could 
circulate the message appended below.

	Chris

[ mod's note: FW will take a stand to circulate a large quantity
  of topical info from-and-about a variety of fringe sources... 
  this is about guerilla media here, so the political agenda 
  involved should be obvious. ]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Tue, 12 Mar 1996 11:04:50 -0500
>From: Frank Haymann <za14@solo.pipex.co.za>
>Subject: URGENT ACTION REQUIRED!
>
>This is an important message which requires your urgent attention.  This 
>is NOT a HOAX.  Please take it entirely seriously. 
>
>A group of neo-nazis are trying to form a newsgroup on Usenet called
>rec.music.white-power, so that they can get their message of hate out to
>young people using the Internet.  Newsgroups are public discussion areas
>on the Internet and their formation requires enough support from the
>Internet community.
>
>EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU HAS ONE VOTE when it comes to creating a
>new Usenet group. I hope you will vote NO and thereby tell these Nazis you
>don't want their stuff on the net. Below is the procedure, please repost 
>my plea and get the NO vote out.   This is my personal opinion.  If you 
>want to see the official call for votes, you can read in news.group or ask 
>me for a copy of the notice calling for votes.
>
>Do _not_ vote twice - that would constitute voting fraud.
>  
>HOW TO VOTE:
>
>Send E-MAIL (posts to a newsgroup are invalid) to:
>
>    music-vote@sub-rosa.com
>
>This is an impartial, third-party vote taker. 
>
>Do not REPLY to THIS message, if you are trying to vote.  Please do not
>assume that just replying to this message will work. Check the address
>before you mail your vote.  Your mail message should contain only one
>statement:
>
>I vote NO on rec.music.white-power
>
>
>I REALLY HOPE YOU VOTE NO!
>
>Vote counting is automated.  Failure to follow these directions may
>mean that your vote does not get counted.  If you do not receive an
>acknowledgment of your vote within three days contact the votetaker
>about the problem.  It's your responsibility to make sure your vote
>is registered correctly.  
>
>Here's what Canada's George Burdi, of the neo-Nazi Heritage Front, had to
>say about this vote, on February 21, on his RESISTANCE mailing list:
>
>  "There is a call for votes
>  coming on rec.music.white-power in the next week
>  or so, and you will be notified in a special issue of
>  RREN exactly what to do.  FOLLOW THE
>  INSTRUCTIONS TO THE LETTER.  Let me be
>  perfectly blunt and state that we have more than
>  enough "net-nazis" to win this thing hands-down.
>  But every one of you must vote YES!  And just
>  voting yes means nothing unless you do it properly.
>  So you have been forewarned.  The instructions
>  are coming to your email box soon, and they
>  are not complicated.  Just follow them as told,
>  and we will have a WP music newsgroup finally!"
>
>If Mr. Burdi's confidence disturbs you, please give this letter the
>_widest_ possible distribution, and help us deliver the largest NO vote in
>the history of UseNet.
>
>If you would like more detailed information on why you should vote no,
>check out http://nizkor.almanac.bc.ca - although it should be noted that
>the Nizkor Project has no connection to this personal plea.
>
>Thank you for reading this.
>
>
>Frank Haymann