OLYMPUS TECHNOZONE Vol.62 2004-12
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Cloning as a new technique for elucidation
of unknown mechanisms
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| Genome reprogramming laboratory led by Dr. Wakayama
at the RIKEN Kobe Institute, Center for Developmental Biology. |
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Cloning research is inevitably dogged by ethical issues, isn't it?
Ethics are indeed a big question. Those of us dealing
with laboratory animals are constantly monitored by animal protection
groups, for example. In my view though, such organizations are an
absolute necessity. Without them it would be chaos. I personally
take care of the animals I use in my research, and I know not to
go too far, but a growing number of researchers have never handled
a lab mouse themselves. Instead, they conduct experiments on mice
prepared by other technicians.
We also need the eyes of animal protection groups on us to prevent
further criticism to the extent that we can no longer conduct animal
experiments.
You believe that, ultimately, cloning research is for the
benefit of humankind.
That's correct. I will say, however, that
human beings simply should not even consider cloning themselves
as a form of
infertility treatment. People often ask me with accusatory undertones, "How do you feel about developing a technique that could lead
to human cloning?" The value of cloning lies not in human
clones, but in applications such as medicine and livestock breeding.
In terms of fundamental biochemistry, of course cloning is also
a new means of studying things that we don't yet fully understand,
such as cell division and initialization. In this sense, cloning
is a new technique that didn't exist previously for that purpose.
I was particularly impressed by the remark you made in your
lecture that no one actually understands the mechanism by which
the egg initializes the nucleus of the somatic cell artificially
through nucleus transplant.
Yes. I mean it's very hard to imagine that somatic cells
taken from the tail of a mouse would produce offspring. It would
never happen in nature. But when that somatic cell is transplanted
into an egg, it is initialized. Do eggs have the ability to perform
initialization? If so, why? Organisms have shed what they don't
need through the process of evolution. Only the necessary things
are passed on to the next generation. If eggs have the ability to
initialize cells, it's because that ability is necessary. So is
that initialization mechanism the same as fertilization?
Cloning techniques also provide a valuable new tool for studying
fertilization itself. |
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