CLONING: Dumb Human Pet Tricks - Brief Article

Applied Genetics News, March, 2000

The March issue of Wired carries a story about a Texas A&M team that plans to clone pets. First in line is Missiplicity, the beloved canine companion of an anonymous billionaire who is putting up the research funds. An offshoot of the Texas A&M project is Genetic Savings and Clone (College Station, TX), whose website, www.savingsandclone.com, has just gone online. The company is dedicated to cloning pets, livestock, and rare and endangered species. Currently Savings and Clone will collect and store DNA indefinitely from your dog, your favorite championship racehorse, or whatever (not your mother-in-law). Cloning is not yet available.

Don't imagine that Savings and Clone is alone on the cutting edge. Other companies who will store your pet DNA are Lazoron Biotechnologies (Baton Rouge, LA), Canine Cryobank (San Marcos, CA), and perPetuate (Newington, CT).

These gene banks typically send a DNA collection kit, which a veterinarian uses to take a small skin sample. The tissue is grown in culture temporarily, then frozen in liquid nitrogen.

If dogs will soon be cloned, then why not humans? The day may be close at hand. The European Patent Office granted Austin Smith and Peter Mountford (Edinburg University) a patent concerning the isolation and propagation of animal embryonic stem cells, specifically including human cells.

The patent office conceded that the patent, as written, could embrace the cloning of human beings. "It's a mistake, yes," says spokesman Rainer Osterwaldter, as quoted by Reuters. The patent office cannot reverse the decision unless outside parties file their opposition to the patent.

Stem Cell Sciences (SCS), the Australian company which has licensed the Edinburgh patent, was forced to respond to the furor created by press reports, not to mentioned complaints by Greenpeace. The company acknowledged that Claim 48 of the patent could extend to a method for genetically altered humans, but disavowed any intention of doing so.

"While we at SCS are delighted to be at the forefront of this exciting technology, we are, however, concerned that our techniques may have been misunderstood as being intended for use in methods for producing genetically engineered humans," says Peter Mountford, chief scientific officer of SCS. "We are glad to make explicit that this was never the intention, and thus, to reassure all interested parties."

Meanwhile, the Science and Technology Agency of Japan has drafted legislation that would outlaw the introduction of a cloned human embryo into the womb for reproductive purposes as well as the creation of hybrid human/animal embryos. Reportedly, renegade scientists who defy the ban could get prison sentences of three to seven years.