Egg’s missing proteins thwart primate cloning
By John Travis
Don’t go ordering your clone just yet. A new study indicates that it’s almost impossible to clone a person by using the same techniques that work in mice and other nonprimates.
Although scientists can now routinely clone mice, sheep, cattle, and many other animals, they’ve struggled to clone monkeys and other primates (SN: 10/20/01, p. 251: Dolly Was Lucky). One research group has reported cloning a monkey, but neither those scientists nor others have replicated that success (SN: 3/8/97, p. 142). Moreover, researchers seeking to use cloning to produce human embryos as a source for multipurpose stem cells have failed in all their attempts so far.