Another Method of Cloning

Therapeutic Cloning

Well, you might be asking what is the big word in front of cloning. Nothing wrong with that, because I too did not know what it means at first. In this post, I'll be explaining about therapeutic cloning, or formally known as Somatic cell nuclear transfer(SCNT). Somatic Cell Transfer Introduction Animation


Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

Process of  Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

Step 1: Take a chicken egg. Nope, not eggs from supermarkets! A human egg from the ovary.
Step 2: Remove the nucleus from the egg and discard it.
Step 3: Remove the nucleus from another cell and insert it into the egg without a nucleus(enucleated egg)
Step 4:Once inside the egg cell, the nucleus would be reprogrammed by a shock, which would cause it to begin to divide until it becomes a blastocyst, which is an early stage of an embryo.
Step 5: At this point, stem cells can be remove from the blastocyst. The stem cells are undifferentiated cells which can grow into a variety of cells   Understand what stem cells are in this animation (:

Somatic cell nuclear tranfer can save the lives of people by recreating a certain part their body that are not working properly. For example, if you ever need  a new liver, SCNT can help you by taking the nucleus of a certain cell from you, let's say your skin cell, and inserting it into a host egg cell. The stems cells that are harvested can grow to replace your damaged liver cells. The plus point of SCNT is that, because your the nucleus of your own cells are used, chances of your body rejecting the new organ is much lower!

Acknowledgements:

ü  http://www.ehow.com/about_5525217_embryo-cloning.html (last accessed on 23 Feb 2013)

ü  http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-therapeutic-cloning.htm (last accessed on 23 Feb 2013)

ü  http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/genetic/human-cloning2.htm (last accessed on 23 Feb 2013)

ü  http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1382860/somatic-cell-nuclear-transfer-SCNT (last accessed 22 Feb 2013)