Published1 hour agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Zhaodi Liao, NatureBy Pallab GhoshScience correspondentChinese researchers have cloned the first rhesus monkey, a species which is widely used in medical research because its physiology is similar to humans.They say they could speed up drug testing, as genetically identical animals give like-for-like results, providing greater certainty in trials.Previous attempts to clone a rhesus have either not led to births or the offspring have died a few hours later. One animal welfare group has said it is “deeply concerned” by the development.In mammals, sexual reproduction leads to offspring made up of a mixture of genes from their father and mother. In cloning, techniques are used to create a genetically identical copy of a single animal. The most famous cloned animal, Dolly the sheep, was created in 1996. Scientists reprogrammed a cell from another sheep to turn them into embryos which are building block cells that can grow into any part of an organism. These embryos were then implanted into Dolly’s surrogate mother. Writing in the journal Nature communications, the researchers say they have essentially done the same thing but with a rhesus monkey. They say that the animal has remained healthy for more than two years, indicating the cloning process was successful. Dr Falong Lu of the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences told BBC News that ”everyone was beaming with happiness” at the successful outcome.But a spokesperson for the UK’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) said that the organisation believed that the animal suffering caused outweighed any immediate benefit to human patients. Rhesus monkeys are found in the wild in Asia, with populations in Afghanistan through India, Thailand, Vietnam and China. They are used in experiments to study infection and immunity.The first macaque monkeys were cloned in 2018, but rhesus monkeys are preferred for medical researchers, because of their genetic similarity to humans.Image source, Chinese Academy of SciencesThe problem with this method of cloning adult cells to become embryonic is that in most attempts, mistakes are made in the reprogramming, and very few end up becoming born and fewer still are born healthy – between 1 and 3% in most mammals. And it has proved harder still with rhesus monkeys, with no births until the research team succeeded two years ago.They discovered that in failed rhesus attempts, the placentas, which provide oxygen and nutrients to the growing foetus, were not reprogrammed properly by the cloning process and so did not develop normally. The researchers got around the problem by not using the part of the cloned embryo that goes on to develop into the placenta – the outer part. As the graphic below shows, they removed the inner cells – which develop into the body of the animal and inserted them into a non-cloned outer embryo – which they hoped would develop into a normal placenta.The researchers used 113 embryos, 11 of which were implanted and achieved two pregnancies and one live birth.They named the monkey “ReTro”, after the scientific method, called “trophoblast replacemement”, used to produce the animal.The RSPCA said it had grave misgivings about the research.”There is no immediate application for this study. We are expected to assume that human patients will benefit from these experiments, but any real-life applications would be years away and it is likely that more animal ‘models’ will be necessary in developing these technologies,” a spokesperson said.”The RSPCA is deeply concerned about the very high numbers of animals who experience suffering and distress in these experiments and the very low success rate. Primates are intelligent and sentient animals, not just research tools”.Prof Robin Lovell-Badge, of the Francis Crick institute in London, who strongly supports animal research when the benefits to patients outweigh the suffering to animals, has similar concerns.”Having animals of the same genetic make-up will reduce a source of variation in experiments. But you have to ask if it is really worth it.”The number of attempts they had is enormous. They have had to use many embryos and implant them into many surrogate mothers to get one live born animal.”Prof Lovell-Badge also has concerns that the scientists have produced only one live birth.”You cannot make any conclusions about the success rate of this technique when you have one birth. It’s nonsense to ever propose you can. You need at least two, but preferably more.”In response, Dr Falong Lu told BBC News that the team’s aim is to obtain more cloned monkeys while reducing the number of embryos used. He added that all ethical approvals had been obtained for the research.”All animal procedures in our research adhered to the guidelines set by the Animal Use and Care Committees at the Shanghai Institute of Biological Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and the Institute of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology. The protocol has been approved by the Animal Use and Care Committee of the CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology”.Follow Pallab on X, formerly known as TwitterMore on this storyFirst monkey clones created in the labPublished24 January 2018Twenty years on from Dolly the sheepPublished4 July 2016Related Internet LinksChinese Academy of SciencesThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Published23 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Edinburgh UniversityBy Pallab GhoshScience correspondentResearchers have developed gene-edited chickens that are partially resistant to bird flu.Although the birds are not completely immune, the scientists say their work shows it might be possible to block the virus in three years.The latest results suggest that making further changes to the birds’ DNA could produce fully immune chickens.Critics say gene editing tackles the symptoms of high-density farming rather than the root cause of animal diseases.Professor Helen Sang, of the the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute, said the team had made significant progress.”We have got to the point where the results are very encouraging and we want to take this approach further.”Image source, Getty ImagesThe researchers identified three genes they believed were important for the bird flu (formally known as avian influenza) virus to reproduce in the chickens. They made two small changes to one of the genes using a technique known as gene editing.The resulting chickens had no side effects after two years. They also had increased resistance to bird flu, but were not fully immune: half the chickens infected with a high dose of the virus developed an infection.Although any increase in resistance to bird flu should be welcome, only a solution that provides complete immunity can be used in practice. Any intervention that develops partial resistance would also encourage the virus to change in order to fight back and so, if the intervention were widely used, it would slightly increase the risk of another human global pandemic if a mutation made the virus deadly to humans.But Prof Mike McGrew, also of the Roslin Institute, told BBC News that experiments in test tubes showed if changes are made to all three genes, then a fully resistant bird might be possible.”When we did these edits in the cells there was no growth of the virus at all. The changes stopped all replication of the flu.”I am extremely confident that editing the three genes will give full immunity.”This video can not be playedTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.Gene editing involves making precise changes to DNA to change the function of a gene. In this instance the three genes were altered to stop them helping bird flu reproduce, but in a way that did not harm the bird.The researchers are trying to identify the further genetic changes required, before producing gene-edited chickens for the next phase of their research.Bird flu is a major global threat, with a devastating impact in both farmed and wild bird populations. In the UK alone, the current outbreak of H5N1 bird flu has decimated seabird populations and cost the poultry industry more than £100 million in losses.What is bird flu and where did it come from?It is thought to have emerged in intensive poultry farming in China in the 1990s.In rare instances, mutations in the bird flu virus allow it to infect people and cause serious illness. Image source, DAVID AUBREY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYPeter Stevenson, of Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) said the use of gene editing to tackle diseases in farms risked making it easier for animals to be kept in poor conditions. “Highly pathogenic bird flu has not been caused by wild birds; it has been generated by the crowded, stressful conditions of industrial poultry production. The proper approach to bird flu necessitates a radical restructuring of the poultry sector to reduce stocking densities and flock sizes as well as to reduce the number of farms clustered together”.CIWF has supported the use of gene editing to prevent the slaughter of billions of male chicks at birth who are unwanted by the egg producing industry. The campaign group believes that the technology should be used only to reduce animal suffering.Image source, AcceligenWork is under way across the world to develop gene edited animals that are resistant to disease and are more productive.Parliament passed legislation earlier this year that permits the commercial development and sale of gene edited food. It opens the door for the use farm animals created by the technology, but a further vote in Parliament will be required, once MPs are satisfied that the animals will not suffer.The study has been published in the journal Nature Communications.Follow Pallab on X, formally known as TwitterMore on this storyWhat is bird flu and what’s behind the outbreak?Published23 MayGene-edited food now legal to be sold in EnglandPublished23 March

Published5 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Getty ImagesBy Pallab GhoshScience correspondentA Japanese researcher has told a major genetics conference that he has created eggs from the cells of male mice.The research, still in its early stages, involved turning male XY sex chromosomes into female XX ones.Prof Katsuhiko Hayashi from Osaka University is working on developing fertility treatments.The development, which he has submitted for publication in the scientific journal Nature, raises the prospect of male couples having their own children.Prof George Daley of Harvard Medical School, who is not involved in the research, said that there was still a long way to go before society was faced with such a decision.”Hayashi’s work is unpublished but fascinating. [Doing this on Humans] is harder than the mouse,” he said. We still don’t understand enough of the unique biology of human gametogenesis (the formation of reproductive cells) to reproduce Hayashi’s provocative work in mice”.Details were presented at the human gene-editing summit at the Crick Institute in London.Prof Hayashi, a globally respected expert in the field, told delegates at the meeting that the work was at a very early stage. The eggs, he said were of low quality and the technique could not be used safely on humans at this stage.But he told BBC News that he could see current problems overcome in ten years and he would like to see it available as a fertility treatment for both male and female and same sex couples if it is proven to be safe to use.”If people want it and if society accepts such a technology then yes, I’m for it”.Image source, BBC NewsThe technique involves first taking a skin cell from a male mouse and then turning it into a stem cell – a cell that can turn into other types of cell.The cells are male and therefore have XY chromosomes. Prof Katsuhiko’s team then delete the Y chromosome, duplicate the X chromosome and then stick the two X’s together. This adjustment allows the stem cell to be programmed to become an egg.The technique could be used to help infertile couples where women are not able to produce their own eggs. He stressed though that it was a long way off from being available as a fertility treatment.”Even in mice there are many problems in the quality of the egg. So before we can think of it as a fertility treatment we have to overcome these problems, which could take a long long time,” he said.Prof Hayashi said he would not be in favour of it being used by a man to create a baby using his own sperm and artificially created eggs.”Technically this is possible. I’m not so sure whether at this stage it is safe or acceptable for society”.Prof Amander Clark, a stem cell scientist from the University of Californa, Los Angeles said that the LBGTQ+ community should have a say in the use of the technology for reproduction.”The LGBTQ+ community have unique needs when it comes to having a family. It may be possible in the future for same-sex reproduction based upon current research using laboratory models to develop the technology. “However, today this technology is not available for human use, safety and efficacy has not been proven, and it is unclear how long the technology will take to get to the clinic. There is still much to learn about the human germ line and fundamental knowledge gaps serve as a barrier to translating this research to humans.”Cultural differencesAlta Charo, professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Maddison, said different cultures would have “profoundly different views” on whether to use the technology, if it became available.”In some societies a genetic contribution to one’s children is considered absolutely essential, and for them it’s a question of ‘is this a step to take?’ for those who are not in a heterosexual arrangement.”For other societies that’s not as nearly as important, and child adoption is perfectly acceptable, because for them families are more about the personal relationship and less about the biological connection.”Prof Haoyi Wang, of the Chinese Academy of Science believes there is a very a long way to go before the technology could be considered for use in the clinic.”Scientists never say never, in principle it has been done in mice so, of course, it may be possible in humans, but I can foresee a lot of challenges and I couldn’t predict how many years that would be.”Follow Pallab on Twitter

Published18 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, TEK IMAGE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYBy Pallab GhoshScience correspondentNew rules in China to regulate gene editing in humans don’t go far enough, a leading expert has warned scientists.Dr Joy Zhang of Kent University, a global expert on the governance of gene editing in China, said authorities are susceptible to “regulatory negligence”. The regulations were updated following an outcry five years ago when a Chinese scientist said he had created the world’s first gene-edited babies.China says the new laws are in line with international rules.They set requirements for ethical approval, supervision and inspection, but experts worry that they may not apply to the private sector.China jails ‘gene-edited babies’ scientistGene editing technique could transform futureDr Zhang, one of the main speakers at an international human genome editing summit in London, told BBC News: “My biggest concern is that the new measures fail to cover a chronic and increasing problem in trying to deal with private ventures that are taking place outside of conventional scientific institutes.”The new rules may struggle to keep up with the burgeoning innovation that is happening in China.”Gene editing is a new technique that enables scientists to make precise changes to DNA. Scientists believe it could be used to correct many inherited diseases. It is controversial, though, because it raises the possibility of making permanent changes to a person’s genetic makeup that will be passed down to their offspring. A controversial experimentThe world’s leading scientists in the field were stunned when Dr He Jiankui, from Shenzhen in Guangdong Province, claimed five years ago that he had created the world’s first gene-edited babies – twins nicknamed Lulu and Nana.The girls’ DNA had been altered while they were at an early embryonic stage in a way that Dr He claimed would make them resistant to HIV infection. He was fined and sentenced to three years in prison in 2019. No-one, other than Dr He, has had access to the twins. But he said at a recent scientific meeting that they were in good health.Upon his release, it emerged last month that he was planning to set up a clinic in Hong Kong to research using gene editing to develop a treatment for children with a rare inherited muscular disorder, called Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Immigration officials announced that they had rescinded his visa after they discovered he had a criminal record.The new rules close the loopholes that enabled Dr He to evade regulations, which previously only applied to experiments on human beings in hospitals, for example for drug trials. The updated regulations cover all research institutions and everything relating to humans, including work on tissues, organs and embryonic cells. Image source, He JiankuiLabThe summit organiser, Prof Robin Llovell-Badge from the Crick Institute, where the meeting is being held, said he was concerned that there was still too much secrecy in Chinese research.”I understand why China wants to be leaders in technology, but there are some areas that require special attention and gene editing is one of them,” he said. ”It has to be done properly and with the appropriate governance and oversight, and I’m concerned that they are not there yet.”Speaking at the summit, Dr Yangin Peng of the Chinese Academy of Science said the government has “accelerated” laws and regulations in gene editing.”China has considerably tightened its legislation and regulations,” he said. “Permanent, inherited changes are banned, governance has adopted a precautionary approach and our laws are in line with international rules.”Image source, SPLDr Francoise Baylis, a Canadian bioethicist from Dalhousie University said she wanted more details of the updates to China’s rules.”I saw [that in the updated rules] research should be in line with ethical principles and I would want to know which ethical principles, where they are set out and whether they are open to questioning,” she said.She added that China was not alone in grappling with how to regulate the private sector.”We have similar issues in North America, so I think it is wrong to focus on China,” she said.Dr Piers Millett of the International Biosafety and Biosecurity Initiative, based in Washington, acknowledged that: ”China is probably leading the way in revising the rules in this area.”Image source, SEBASTIAN KAULITZKI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYMany scientists have wondered how Dr He could be allowed to return to clinical research after prison. “I like many people had been wondering whether there had been an individual or institution in China that had been backing or protecting He Jiankui,” said Dr Zhang.But she said she now thought that “we are looking at a simple case of regulatory negligence”.That led her to believe that “without getting clarifications on Dr He’s case, the recent talk of good governance is hypocritical”.”I worry less about what He Jiankui is up to and more about the Chinese authorities are doing,” she said.Follow Pallab on Twitter

Published1 day agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, 20th Century StudiosBy Pallab GhoshScience correspondentMotion capture suits that bring characters to life in films like Avatar are helping researchers track the onset of diseases which impair movement. In many cases, the quicker such conditions are assessed the sooner a patient is able to receive the appropriate support and treatment.The new system uses artificial intelligence to analyse body movements.In tests, the UK experts measured the severity of two genetic disorders twice as quickly as the best doctors. The researchers say it could also halve the time and greatly reduce the cost required to develop new drugs in clinical trials.The research has been published in the journal Nature Medicine. Dr Valeria Ricotti, of Great Ormond Street Institute for Child Health told BBC News that she was “completely blown away by the results”.”The impact on diagnosis and developing new drugs for a wide range of diseases could be absolutely massive.”Dr Ricotti was among a group of researchers at Imperial College and University College London who spent 10 years developing the new technology. They tested it on patients with Friedreich’s ataxia (FA) and Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) in two separate studies. The researchers say it could also be used to monitor patients recovering from other diseases that affect movement. These include any condition involving the brain and nervous system, heart, lungs, muscles, bone and a number of psychiatric disorders.Image source, Great Ormand Street HospitalTracking the severity and likely progression of such diseases usually involves measuring in a clinic the speed and accuracy with which patients carry out a set of standardised movements. That assessment – vital to working out what support and treatment a patient needs – can take years.The two studies published on Thursday show that the motion capture system can do this much more quickly and accurately. It was adapted from the technology used by filmmakers to capture the movement of actors in the Avatar films in order to create lifelike aliens on screen.Prof Aldo Faisal of Imperial College, who was one of the scientists who came up with the idea, said it was an enormous improvement.”Our new approach detects subtle movements that humans can’t pick up on,” he said. “It has the capability to transform clinical trials as well as improve diagnosis and monitoring for patients.” Image source, Thmoas Angus/Imperial CollegeFA typically appears in adolescence and affects one in 50,000 people, whereas DMD affects 20,000 children, mostly boys, globally each year. There is currently no cure for either.A team at Imperial College first tested the motion sensor suits on patients with FA. They found that the AI could predict the worsening of the disease over twelve months, half the time it would normally take an expert. A separate team at Great Ormond Street tested the technology on 21 boys with DMD between the ages of five and 18. It predicted how their movement would be affected six months in the future much more accurately than a doctor.The researchers believe that their system could be used to speed up and lower the cost of clinical trials to test out new drugs for a wide range of conditions.In particular, it may make trials of new drugs for rare genetic disorders more cost effective.Image source, Thomas Angus/Imperial CollegeProfessor Paola Giunti, Head of UCL’s Ataxia Centre said: “We will be able to trial more drugs with less patients at a lower cost.”In the case of DMD a minimum of 100 patients are needed over the course of about 18 months to get statistically significant results relating to the effectiveness of a new drug. The study showed that using the new system it could potentially be done with 15 patients over six months.About 6,000 rare genetic diseases affect a total of about 1 in 17 people in the UK. The number of patients with each disease can amount to just a few hundred or less. That is a disincentive for drug companies to undertake expensive clinical trials to develop new medicines to treat them.Game changerProfessor Richard Festenstein from the Medical Research Council’s London Institute of Medical Sciences, told BBC News that the suit technology, which he helped to develop, had the potential to change the economics of drug discovery. ”This is going to attract the pharmaceutical industry to invest in rare diseases,” he said. “The main beneficiary from our research is going to be patients, because the technology is going to be able to come up with new treatments much more quickly.”The researchers are already seeking approval for the use of motion capture for drug trials for FA and DMD, which if successful could begin in two years. They are also gathering data for its use with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and MS.Follow Pallab on TwitterMore on this storyAI system may diagnose dementia in a day10 August 2021

SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, BBC NewsTomatoes that boost the body’s vitamin D could be among the first gene-edited crops allowed on sale in England.Researchers in Norwich created the plants by turning off a specific molecule in their genetic code.A bill will be introduced on Wednesday to allow commercial growing of gene-edited crops in England.The technique is currently not used for food production in the UK because of rules set by the EU but Brexit has enabled the UK to set its own rules.One in six people in the UK are deficient in vitamin D, which is vital to strong bones and muscles and helps reduce risk of cancer.Prof Cathie Martin, who led the research at the John Innes Centre, said that the development, published in Nature Plants, could be hugely beneficial.”With humans, half an hour in the sunshine every day is enough to make enough vitamin D. But a lot of people don’t have that time outside and that’s why they need supplements. The tomatoes themselves could provide another source of vitamin D in their diet.”If government legislation gets through Parliament successfully, the vitamin-boosting fruits could be among the first gene-edited crops allowed on supermarket shelves in England.Gene editing is a relatively recent technology. It involves switching genes on and off by snipping out a small section of the plant’s DNA. The older technique of genetic modification involves putting genes in, sometimes from a completely different species.EU restrictions mean both methods have been effectively banned in Europe for a quarter century. Both methods are used in other countries, to produce food. But the EU set stringent regulations on GM crops 25 years ago because of safety concerns and public opposition to the technology. Gene-edited crops are covered by the same regulations.The UK currently follows European Union regulations on both technologies.Any new GM or GE crop must undergo a scientific safety assessment, which can take around five years. Plant breeders believe that to be too onerous and expensive and so do not invest in the technology in Europe. In addition, any new variety that passes the EU’s safety tests must then be approved by a majority at the European Parliament. Plant breeders believe that political opposition is too strong for the approval of new GM or GE varieties. The regulations, say the plant industry, effectively prevented the commercial production of GM foods in Europe. The UK government has decided that gene editing is safe to use and is to introduce a bill on Wednesday to allow its commercial development in England. The regulations on GM crops will not be relaxed at this stage.The Environment Secretary George Eustice told BBC News that the change in the law was necessary to combat the impact of climate change. ”The reality is we’re going to need more drought resistant plants and as we try and reduce the use of chemical pesticides, we need to breed in the natural resistance of plants to diseases and this precision breeding technology gives you the ability to do that; it gives you the ability to change traits in a plant faster than you could by conventional breeding but it’s not the same as genetic modification”.Image source, BBC NewsThe development has been welcomed by Nigel Moore, of KWS, a plant-breeding firm in Hertfordshire which produces wheat and barley. “With the varieties we see in England, it generally takes us 12 years to produce those new ones. With gene-editing, we can respond to changing farmers’ much faster.”KWS has been developing new varieties of wheat and barley for farmers for 150 years using traditional cross-breeding techniques. Mr Moore says that the firm needs to use gene-editing to produce the new varieties farmers are asking for.”If we think about the pace of change: climate change, the need to reduce nitrogen fertilizer, need to use less pesticides; the faster we get the genetic changes we need, the faster we are able to adapt to all of that changing world around us”.Critics of the technology, such as Liz O’Neill, who is the director of the campaign group, GM Freeze, says that the government is being too hasty in lifting restrictions for gene-edited crops.Image source, BBC News”Mistakes happen. Other changes can get made. Genetics is not like Lego. It is a new set of techniques, and it has developed very quickly which means that there is an awful lot that could go wrong.The process does involve putting genetic material in, in order to take it out, and there is a deliberate oversimplification in the description of the process in order to make people feel comfortable about it.”Ms O’Neill also wonders how the relaxation of regulations, which apply to England only, won’t happen in other parts of the UK, which will make their own decisions about the use of the technology. “The food chain doesn’t operate only in England. It operates across the UK. Who is going to keep gene-edited food out of the food in Scotland and Wales?Customers want informed choice and can only get that if GMOs in the food chain are traceable”.Nigel Moore from KWS responds by saying that new gene-edited crop varieties are analysed to ensure that there is no new DNA in them before they are approved for use and that a number of scientific assessments have judged gene-editing technology to be safe.He also believes that English-grown GE foods won’t find their way to other parts of the UK.”Agricultural supply chains are already very competent in delivering brand requirements such as gluten free and organic foods to very high standards.”The Scottish Government has a long standing opposition to GM crops. Their argument is that they want to protect the “purity” of Scotland’s food and drinks sector. But this is now is direct opposition to NFU Scotland which says it puts Scottish farmers at a competitive disadvantage.A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We have no plans to revise the existing GMO Deliberate Release Regulations in Wales and will maintain our precautionary approach towards genetic modification.GM crop growing in Northern Ireland was banned at the same time as in Scotland and Wales, back in 2015, and it was said then that that decision would hold for the foreseeable future.Follow Pallab on TwitterMore on this storyBrexit paves the way for gene-edited cropsGene edited sex selection may spare animal sufferingGene-edited farm animals are on their wayRelated Internet LinksJohn Innes CentreKWSGM FreezeThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Fátima SantosResearchers have rejuvenated a 53-year-old woman’s skin cells so they are the equivalent of a 23-year-old’s.The scientists in Cambridge believe that they can do the same thing with other tissues in the body.The eventual aim is to develop treatments for age-related diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and neurological disorders.The technology is built on the techniques used to create Dolly the cloned sheep more than 25 years ago.The head of the team, Prof Wolf Reik, of the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, told BBC News that he hoped that the technique could eventually be used to keep people healthier for longer as they grow older.”We have been dreaming about this kind of thing. Many common diseases get worse with age and to think about helping people in this way is super exciting,” he said.Prof Reich stressed though that the work, which has been published in the journal eLife, was at a very early stage. He said that there were several scientific issues to overcome before it could move out of his lab and into the clinic. But he said that demonstrating for the first time that cell rejuvenation is possible was a critical step forward.The origins of the technique stem from the 1990s, when researchers at the Roslin Institute just outside Edinburgh developed a method of turning an adult mammary gland cell taken from a sheep into an embryo. It led to the creation of Dolly the cloned sheep.The Roslin team’s aim was not to create clones of sheep or indeed humans, but to use the technique to create so-called human embryonic stem cells. These, they hoped, could be grown into specific tissues, such as muscle, cartilage, and nerve cells to replace worn-out body parts. The Dolly technique was made simpler in 2006 by Prof Shinya Yamanaka, then at Kyoto University. The new method, called IPS, involved adding chemicals to adult cells for around 50 days. This resulted in genetic changes that turned the adult cells into stem cells.In both the Dolly and IPS techniques, the stem cells created need to be regrown into the cells and tissues the patient requires. This has proved difficult and despite decades of effort, the use of stem cells to treat diseases is currently extremely limited.Prof Reik’s team used the IPS technique on 53-year-old skin cells. But they cut short the chemical bath from 50 days to around 12. Dr Dilgeet Gill was astonished to find that the cells had not turned into embryonic stem cells – but had rejuvenated into skin cells that looked and behaved as if they came from a 23-year old.He said: “I remember the day I got the results back and I didn’t quite believe that some of the cells were 30 years younger than they were supposed to be. It was a very exciting day!” The technique cannot immediately be translated to the clinic because the IPS method increases the risk of cancers. But Prof Reik was confident that now it was known that it is possible to rejuvenate cells, his team could find an alternative, safer method.”The long-term aim is to extend the human health span, rather than the lifespan, so that people can get older in a healthier way,” he said.Prof Reik says some of the first applications could be to develop medicines to rejuvenate skin in older people in parts of the body where they have been cut or burned – as a way to speed up healing. The researchers have demonstrated that this is possible in principle by showing that their rejuvenated skin cells move more quickly in experiments simulating a wound.Image source, Science Photo LibraryThe next step is to see if the technology will work on other tissues such as muscle, liver and blood cells.Prof Melanie Welham, who is the executive chairman of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, which part-funded the research that led to Dolly the sheep, told BBC News that the long-stalled clinical benefits of the technology may not be that far away.”If similar approaches or new therapies could rejuvenate immune cells, which we know become less responsive as we age, then in the future it might be possible to boost people’s response to vaccination as well as their ability to fight infections.”The big question is whether research efforts in this area would lead to a method of whole-body regeneration, an elixir of youth or an anti-ageing pill. Prof Reik said this idea was not completely far-fetched.”The technique has been applied to genetically modified mice and there are some signs of rejuvenation. One study showed signs of a rejuvenated pancreas, which is interesting for its potential to tackle diabetes.”But Prof Robin Lovell-Badge, of the Crick Institute in London, believes that the scientific hurdles between Prof Reik’s result in the lab and even the simplest clinical applications are considerable. Nor does he think it will be a trivial process to translate the rejuvenation process to other types of tissue or indeed an anti-ageing pill.”If you find other chemicals to do the same thing, then that would be good, but they may be just as bad. So it is ambitious to think you are going to find these chemicals easily and that they are going to be safer.”It is also quite possible that other types of cells would require different conditions that may be hard to control. And whether you could do it with the whole body safely would be such a long way off, that I would think it would be pure speculation.”Follow Pallab on Twitter

SharecloseShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingThis video can not be playedTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.A paralysed man with a severed spinal cord has been able to walk again, thanks to an implant developed by a team of Swiss researchers.It is the first time someone who has had a complete cut to their spinal cord has been able to walk freely.The same technology has improved the health of another paralysed patient to the extent that he has been able to become a father.The research has been published in the journal Nature Medicine. Michel Roccati was paralysed after a motorbike accident five years ago. His spinal cord was completely severed – and he has no feeling at all in his legs.But he can now walk – because of an electrical implant that has been surgically attached to his spine. Someone this injured has never been able to walk like this before. The researchers stress that it isn’t a cure for spinal injury and that the technology is still too complicated to be used in everyday life, but hail it nonetheless as a major step to improving quality of life.I met Michel at the lab where the implant was created. He told me that the technology “is a gift to me”.”I stand up, walk where I want to, I can walk the stairs – it’s almost a normal life.”It was not the technology alone that drove Michel’s recovery. The young Italian has a steely resolve. He told me that from the moment of his accident, he was determined to make as much progress as he could.”I used to box, run and do fitness training in the gym. But after the accident, I could not do the things that I loved to do, but I did not let my mood go down. I never stopped my rehabilitation. I wanted to solve this problem.”The speed of Michel’s recovery amazed the neurosurgeon who inserted the implant and expertly attached electrodes to individual nerve fibres, Prof Jocelyne Bloch from the Laboratoire de Neurothérapies et Neuromodulation – LNTM.”I was extremely surprised,” she told me. “Michel is absolutely incredible. He should be able to use this technology to progress and be better and better.”‘I always dreamed of walking again’Doctors use deep-brain ultrasound therapy to treat tremorsParkinson’s results beyond researchers’ wildest dreamsThe research has been backed by Dr Ram Hariharan, a consultant at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield who is independent of the research team and also speaks for the Spinal Injuries Association. “They have done something that has not been done before.”I have not heard of any study where they have put in an implant [into a patient with a complete spinal cord cut] and demonstrated muscle movements and improving balance, enough to stand and walk.”But he added more clinical trials needed to be carried out before he could be convinced that it was an effective treatment.”We need more numbers [of patients] to show that it is first safe and that it significantly enhances their lives. Only then can it be taken forward.”Nerves in the spinal cord send signals from the brain to the legs. Some people are paralysed when the nerves are damaged through injury.In Michel’s case there’s no signal at all to his legs because the spinal cord is completely severed. But the implant sends signals directly to his legs enabling him to walk, but only when the implant is on.This video can not be playedTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.So far nine people have received the implant and regained the ability to walk. None of them use it to help them walk in their everyday lives – because it’s too complicated at this stage. Instead, they use it to practise walking – which exercises their muscles, improves their health – and often, restores a little bit of movement. David M’zee was one of the first patients to receive the implant. Like Michel, he was able to walk with the implant while using a walker. David’s health improved to such an extent he has was able to have a baby girl with his partner Janine, something that was not possible after his accident in 2010.His daughter, Zoe, is now one year old. When I was with them, she raced with her Dad with her baby walker and took great delight in beating him.”It’s really beautiful!” he beamed with fatherly pride.”It is great fun. It’s the first time I have been walking with her in that way – she with her baby walker, I with my walker.”Having a family has given David a huge amount of joy. And the implant has helped him in subtle, but important ways.”It helps with the hypertension. I had it for so long. At first I didn’t realise I had it. I was getting so tired from time to time. “Once we found out that the implant can increase the blood pressure it was like ‘Wow, that’s how life can be!'””It’s these small things that make a big difference,” he told me.There is still a long way to go before the technology can be used routinely to help paralysed people to walk, according to Prof Grégoire Courtine, who led the team that developed the technology at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).”This is not a cure for spinal cord injury. But it is a critical step to improve people’s quality of life. We are going to empower people. We are going to give them the ability to stand, to take some steps. It is not enough, but it is a significant improvement.”A cure would require regeneration of the spinal cord, possibly with stem cell therapies, which are still at a very early stage of research. Prof Courtine believes that his implant technology could be used in conjunction with nerve regeneration treatments once they are ready.Follow Pallab on TwitterEPFLSpinal injuries associationThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.