A Cloning Marvel

Researchers in US have succeeded in cloning four healthy calves from skin cells taken from the ear of an aging Japanese bull.
The researchers scratched the bull's ears and to remove skin cells which were transfered to a nutritional solution and kept in the laboratory for months. They then removed the nucleus from each of the cells and injected it into the egg cell of a cow, the nucleus of which had likewise already been removed.
Finally the egg cells were implanted into the wombs of several cows. Four of the cows gave birth to healthy calves.
This experiment was conducted by Dr. Xiangzhong Yang and his colleagues at the University of Connecticut.

One aspect of the research is to employ cloned breeding animals in the mass production of sought after proteins. Prodiuction of such proteins could lead to significant prgress in the manufacture of pharmaceutical drugs. A realistic scenario is that the animals being used as factories to make human antibodies, a development of considerable potential advantage to the pharmaceutical science.