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IAN WILMUT

1. Ian Wilmut - generel
Ian Wilmut was born in Hampton Lucey in England on the 7th of July , 1944. He is an English embryologist and is currently one of the leaders of the Queen's Medical Research Institute at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known as the
man who played a supervisory (aufsichtführend) role in the team that first cloned a mammal (Säugetier), in 1996 .
It was a Finn Dorset lamb named Dolly. Wilmut's work, published in 1997, pushed
the concept of cloning into the news and public debate. In 1999, he granted (bewilligte) an Order (Anweisung) of the British Empire for services to embryo development. In December 2007 it was announced that he would be knighted in the 2008 New Year Honours.

2. His education:
Ian Wilmut first, attended the University of Nottingham for his undergraduate work n
(arbeit bis zum geringsten abschluss? ). In 1971 he received a Physical Doctor in n
animal genetic engineering at the "Darwin College of University" of Cambridge. n
Furthermore he joined the Animal Research Breeding Station in Scotland, which n
is now known as the Roslin Institute, in 1974.n
3. Accomplishments (Fähigkeiten) :n
Wilmut's thesis (diplomarbeit) at Darwin College was on the freezing of boar (männl.) n
semen (samen). In 1973, he created the first calf (kalb) ever produced from a frozen embryo, n
which he named Frosty.n
In the mid 80's while he was working on a project involving the insertion (einfügen) of genes n
into sheep embryos, Wilmut heard a rumor of Steen Willadsen's unpublished success n
of cloning a cattle (rind) from differentiated (differenzierten) embryo cells. After confirming (bestätigen) n
the rumor, he turned his attention to the process of cloning. n
It was a much easier alternative to the laborious task and high failure (fehlschlagen) rate of n
manually (von hand) inserting genes into embryos.n
In 1990, Ian Wilmut asked the cell cycle (zyklus) biologist Keith Campbell to assist him at n
cloning studies. Their work had its first success with the birth of Megan and Morag, two n
Welsh mountain sheep cloned from differentiated embryo cells, in 1995. n
In their success, Wilmut and Campbell pioneered a new technique of starving (hungernden) n
embryo cells before transferring their nucleus to fertilized (befruchteten) egg cells. n
The technique synchronized the cell cycles of both cells and their results led Wilmut n
and Campbell believe that any type of cell could be used to produce a clone.n
On the 5th of July 1996, Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell used the same process to n
produce the first clone from adult cells. It was a Finn Dorset lamb named Dolly, n
after Dolly Parton. The announcement (Meldung) impressed the scientific community n
as well as the public, and ignited (entfachte) a large-scale debate on the ethics and n
direction of cloning research.n
Wilmut and Campbell continued their studies. In 1997 they created Polly, a sheep n
cloned from fetal (fötal) skin cells that had been genetically altered (verändert) to contain n
a human gene.n
4. Honoursn
After the achievement of cloning Dolly, he got the qualification "Doctor of Science", n
in the years 1998, 1999 and 2002. Additionally he got more than 10 different honours n
for his research- attainments (leistungen), among other honours, also the n
"Ernst-Schering-Preis", in 2002. n
The cloning of humans :n
In April 2004 Wilmut submitted an application, to the Human Fertilisation and n
Embryology Authority (HEFA), for cloning human embryos. His aim is to clone n
human embryos for the purpose of stem cell research. This led to strong n
protests of the opponents of human cloning.n
Nevertheless Ian Wilmut caused his application with the conclusion, that he n
wants to develop therapies against deadly neuropathys (nervenleiden) , by which the n
cloning from medical view would be justified. On the 8th February, 2005 the n
licence was given to him by the HFEA to the clone of human embryos.n
Scandals:n
Rumour has it, that Ian Wilmut should have admitted, that he is not the n
"father" of the world-famous clone sheep Dolly, in front of an investigating n
committee in Edinburgh. This honour would due to his colleague n
Dr. Keith Campbell. At that time the cell biologist and embryologist was an n
employee in the clone project. Therefore he would have had also be called n
as a first author. But Wilmut didn't name him, so he earned the fame, the n
money and the honors.n
Dolly The Sheepn
Dolly was born at the 5th of july and died at the 14th of february 2003.n
She was a female sheep and the first mammal to be cloned from ann
adult somatic cell by using the process of nuclear transfer.n
The cell that was used was a mammary cell. which is why she was namedn
dolly, after the curvaceous country western singer dolly parton.n
This was remarkable due to that fact that it proved that a celln
taken from a specific body part could create a whole individual.n
Previously it was believed that a specific cell could only producen
replicas of the same body part from which it was obtained.n
She was cloned at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland, and livedn
there until her death at age six. Her birth was announced in february 1997.n
Cloning has been a long time dream of scientist and science fiction lovers alike.n
The technology for cloning has been around for a long time but the knowledgen
has not.n
It has been found that most organisms can be clone but the more complex then
genome the more complex the cloning.n
After the cloning process the egg continues to develop like it would normallyn
growing into a fetus.n
Contrary to what most people believe when you clone something you don'tn
put the fertilized egg into a machine and get out a mature animal. You have to putn
the animal into a whom and let it mature as a normal fetus would.n
A Finn Dorset such as Dolly would have had a life expectancy of around 12-15 years, n
but Dolly only lived to 6 years of age.n
Some people believe the reason for this is because Dolly was actually born geneticallyn
6 years old, the same age as her mother at the time that her genetic data was taken frim her.n
One basis for this was that Dolly's telomeres were short, typically a result of the aging process.n
Surprisingly, Dolly did not die because of being a clone, an autopsy confirmed shen
had ovine pulmonary adenocarinoma (jaagsiekte), a fairly commen disease of sheepn
caused by the retrovirus JSRV.n
Roslin scientists stated taht they did not think there was a connection with Dolly beingn
a clone, and that other sheep on the farm had similar aliments.n
Such lung diseases are especially a danger for sheep kept indoors, as Dolly had ton
sleep indoors for security reasons.n
How the cloning of a lamb works - "The Dolly process"n
First the egg cell of a contributor (Eggmother) (Spender) gets cored (entkernt). n
Then scientists extract the core of a grown cell (genetic mother) and n
crop (pflanzen) it into the emty casing. At last the "new" cell gets croped n
into a surrogate mother. The contained substances code the grown n
core back in an early phase, so the old core devides and developes n
into a new embryo. A clon can be born.n

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