Category Archives: Cloning

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Molecular Biology Enzymes, Kits, and Reagents Market Forecast to 2028 - COVID-19 Impact and Global Analysis By Product, Application, and End User" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The molecular biology enzymes, kits, and reagents market was valued at US$ 10,987.17 million in 2020 and it is projected to reach US$ 41,104.71 million by 2028; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17.8% during 2021-2028.

The growth of the market is attributed to a few key driving factors such as healthy funding for genomics, declining cost of sequencing procedures, and increasing prevalence of chronic diseases. However, the dearth of skilled professionals hinders the market growth.

The molecular biology enzymes, kits, and reagents market is witnessing substantial growth amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of the healthcare research organizations, market players, and academic centers are actively engaged in the research and development activities to develop new vaccines and therapeutic platforms for novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

This extensive rise in research and development activities is expected to boost the demand for molecular biology kits and reagents, which, in turn, would drive the growth of the molecular biology enzymes, kits, and reagents market in the coming years.

Based on product, the molecular biology enzymes, kits, and reagents market are bifurcated into enzymes and kits & reagents. The market, by enzymes, is further segmented into polymerases, ligases, reverse transcriptases, phosphatases, proteases and proteinases, restriction endonuclease, and other. The kits & reagent segment held a larger market share in 2020, and the same segment is estimated to register a higher CAGR during the forecast period.

The molecular biology enzymes, kits, and reagents market, based on application, is segmented into epigenetics, sequencing, synthetic biology, polymerase chain reaction, cloning, and other. In 2020, the sequencing segment held the largest share of the market. However, the polymerase chain reaction segment is estimated to register the highest CAGR during 2021-2028.

In terms of end user, the molecular biology enzymes, kits, and reagents market is segmented into biotechnological and pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and diagnostic centers, and academic and research institutes. The biotechnological and pharmaceutical companies segment held the largest share of the market in 2020, and the same segment is estimated to register the highest CAGR from 2021 to 2028.

Key Market Dynamics

Market Drivers

Market Restraints

Market Opportunities

Future Trends

Companies Mentioned

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ji0bmj

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Molecular Biology Enzymes, Kits, and Reagents Market Analysis/Forecast 2020-2021 & 2022-2028: Burgeoning Demand for Personalized Medicines &...

The developer platform Github has been inundated with malware which has infiltrated tens of thousands of repositories.

As many as 35,000 Github repositories have been cloned with malware according to a security researcher.

The widespread malware attack did not target crypto repositories (repos) specifically, but they have been among those impacted.

Software engineer Stephen Lacy alerted the crypto community to the incursion on Aug. 3.

Tech portal Bleeping Computer reported that the repos were not hacked but had been copied with their clones altered to include the malware. Cloning open source code is a common practice among developers, however, the attackers have injected malicious code and links into legitimate projects to target unsuspecting developers.

Several projects from crypto, Golang, Python, JavaScript, Bash, Docker, and Kubernetes have been affected by the attack, the researcher noted.

While reviewing a project he had found from a Google search, the engineer noticed a malicious URL in the code. Scanning Github repos for this URL returned more than 35,000 results.

Bleeping Computer said that more than 13,000 search results were from a single repository called redhat-operator-ecosystem. The malicious URL exfiltrated a users environment variables but additionally contained a one-line backdoor, the report added.

These environment variables can contain sensitive data such as API keys, tokens, Amazon AWS credentials, and crypto keys. The malware also allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on the systems of all those who install and run the clones.

The majority of the cloned repos had appeared within the past month, the report stated.

Github confirmed that the original repositories were not compromised and it had cleaned up or quarantined the clones.

Last month, BeInCrypto reported that a new strain of malware written in Rust was doing the rounds. Luca Stealer targets Windows operating systems and steals sensitive information such as crypto wallet information. The malware was also distributed on Github.

DeFi researcher Miles Deutscher pointed out that it has not been a great week in crypto. Earlier this week the Nomad bridge was exploited for $190 million and a few hours after, around 8,000 Solana wallets were hacked resulting in the theft of an estimated $8 million.

Markets appear to be unaffected though as total capitalization has gained 1.7% on the day to reach $1.12 trillion at the time of writing.

DisclaimerAll the information contained on our website is published in good faith and for general information purposes only. Any action the reader takes upon the information found on our website is strictly at their own risk.

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Crypto Threat: Malware Infiltrates Github Cloning Thousands of Repos - BeInCrypto

Twenty-five years ago, the scientific breakthrough of mammalian cloning marked a monumental moment in medicine and science. Anticipating the collision it would have with ethical decision making in medicine, I, the only physician-scientist in the U.S. Senate at the time, journeyed to the University of Edinburgh in Scotland to personally visit Sir Ian Wilmut at his research lab at the Roslin Institute.

My house call to Dolly in 1997: I stand with Dolly, the first ever mammal to be cloned from an adult ... [+] somatic cell, during my journey to visit her creator and caretaker, Sir Ian Wilmut.

Professor Wilmut just months before in 1996 had cloned a sheep from an adult somatic cell, shocking the world. This was the first successful attempt of its kind. All over the world people were wondering: would we be cloning a human being next? We talked science, we talked ethics, and we talked about his creations potential impact on altering the course of human history. I also met and examined the cloned sheep, Dolly, in her stall.

Dolly, named after Tennessees own Dolly Parton, was a Finnish Dorset sheep cloned from a single, adult mammary gland cell. Her creation, birth, and short life were scientific feats that immediately sparked global concern and discourse on the increasingly complex moral and ethical dilemmas posed by a sudden discovery of life-manipulating science.

Wilmut and colleagues published their achievement in February 1997, having kept Dolly secret for seven months. We, as a society, were quickly forced to answer difficult, probing questions. A few months later on the Senate floor, I borrowed a question that the Washington Post editorial board had posed a few years before: Is there a line that should not be crossed even for scientific or other gain, and if so where is it?

Here are my remarks in the Senate chamber in 1998:

So it is vital that our public debate and reflection on scientific developments keep pace, and even anticipate and prepare for new scientific knowledge. The moral and ethical dilemmas inherent in the cloning of human beings may well be our greatest test to date. We do not simply seek knowledge, but the wisdom to apply that knowledge. As with each of the mind-boggling scientific advances of the last century, we know that there is the potential for both good and evil in this technology. Congressional Record February 2, 1998

Years removed, I now reflect back on the confusion, questions, and status quo that Dolly challenged.

Dolly was the first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult somatic cell, which is any type of bodily cell that is not a reproductive germ cell. The process Wilmut developed is technically called somatic cell nuclear transfer, colloquially known as cloning. It is the process of transferring the nuclear DNA of a donor somatic cell into an enucleated oocyte, followed by embryo development and then transfer to a surrogate recipient, followed by live birth.

Dollys creation in a test tube and eventual birth marked a major milestone in scientific research, suggesting that an animal could be cloned to create an exact replica using genetic material derived from theoretically any type of body cell. It opened the world to staggering new possibilities in reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning.

Soon after Dollys birth, another parallel and similarly monumental finding was made: in 1998 embryonic stem cells were discovered. These cells are a highly unique type of unprogrammed somatic cell with the exceptional ability to both reproduce unlimited exact copies of themselves and develop into more specialized cell types, such as heart, lung, kidney or skin cells. And though seemingly miraculous in potential, these cells could not be created or programmed from any other type of cell and could only be collected from embryos an ethical dilemma because collection for research required destruction of the embryo itself.

Dolly changed this. Her successful creation paved the way for future scientists to develop a technique to independently produce equally powerful pluripotent stem cells by reprogramming other adult somatic cells, revolutionizing genetic therapy, and completely nullifying the ethical dilemma of collecting embryonic stem cells from embryos. Similarly, Dolly also highlighted the potential for scientists to create new tissues and organs for diseased patients, and to preserve the genetic material of endangered species.

But, along with these positive contributions came widespread concern about the ethics of cloning, especially around potential attempts to clone another human being. Many, including myself, feared this type of technology, if left unregulated, would be misused and abused. Indeed, cloning evoked great scientific power that demanded even greater ethical responsibility, and there were no established ethical guardrails at the time to monitor this duty.

In retrospect, these fears have diminished in part due to proactive measures and to the inherent complexities of the human genome (cloning an entire human being is, after all, a large jump from cloning a sheep). Importantly, legislative and scientific communities have been resolute and unified in their opposition to cloning human beings.

Though a human embryo was indeed successfully cloned in 2013, no known progress has been made when it comes to attempts to clone a human being. Yet the technique to create Dolly has been repurposed widely and has led to numerous scientific innovations.

In 2003, six years after her birth, Dolly became sick and was euthanized. Her decline in health was due to the development of tumors in her chest; some examinations of her cells suggested that she was also aging prematurely.

Despite her relatively short life (the average sheep lifespan is ~10-12 years), Dollys influence on the scientific community has been profound. Not only did she force scientists and researchers to redefine the ethics of their field, but she also laid the foundation for other significant scientific advancements in the fast-evolving new field we know today as regenerative medicine.

One powerful example is gene therapy and editing, where specific genes are targeted, edited, and repaired to protect against disease, cancer, autoimmune disorders, and even rewiring immune system cells for treatment-resistant cancer patients. This revolutionary innovation is made possible by CRISPR technology (the same technology that enabled rapid vaccine development for COVID-19), which is currently celebrating its 10-year anniversary.

Genetic cloning was also made possible thanks to Dolly. This is a type of cloning where scientists create copies of genes within DNA segments to combine with plasmid DNA, or self-replicating genetic material, and then place this new plasmid into a host organism, such as a bacterium, yeast, or mammal cell. This process is used to develop vaccines and antigen tests and is also used to identify useful genetic traits in plants, which can be replicated on a larger scale through the genetic modification of seeds.

Further, cloning techniques have also helped to advance agricultural practices. Farmers can use cloning technology to quickly introduce favored characteristics of prize livestock (such as the ability to produce large amounts of high-quality milk) into a herd by cloning and breeding. These livestock will then further reproduce using traditional breeding or assisted reproductive technology.

Despite advances in genetic cloning and agricultural practices, cloning especially the additional attempts at cloning whole organisms remains variable and highly inefficient.

Successful attempts have been made by companies like Sooam Biotech Research and ViaGen Pets to clone dogs and kittens for wealthy pet owners. But, even today, the success rate of animal cloning is estimated to be less than 30%. In fact, many animal rights activists oppose the practice citing animal welfare. In 2015, the European Union banned the practice of livestock cloning.

Overall interest in cloning slowed as advances in adult stem cell research gained traction in the 2000s. This resulted primarily from scientists newfound ability to take adult human cells, for example skin cells, and reprogram them back into an earlier, more primitive but more powerful embryonic-like, pluripotent cells.

This technique was pioneered by Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka in 2006, for which he was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Yamanakas discovery of reprogramming already specialized adult cells to create induced pluripotent stem cells (IPS) took the ethical issue of destroying embryos for research off the table. Some scientists continue to look to cloning as a way to develop genetically unique stem cells that can be used to reduce the risk of triggering an immune response.

Notes taken shortly after my visit with Dolly: "She has been seen by 2.5 billion people."

We have come a long way since my exploratory journey from the Senate floor in Washington, DC, to the stall and research laboratory that housed Dolly in Edinburgh in 1997.

For all the controversy that Dolly sparked during her short life, her contributions to society have been nothing short of remarkable. She forced thought leaders, researchers, and policymakers around the world to confront the ethics of cloning. And, she encouraged us, as a society, to weigh in and engage on the ethical considerations of increasingly frequent scientific discoveries.

On all of these fronts, we worked tirelessly to instill and adhere to a strong scientific code, focusing on the bettering of science, innovation, and technology for societal good. Cloning gave us that first glimpse into the future.

As I said on the floor of the Senate on February 3, 1998:

This cloning debate, I think, maybe for the first time in the history of this body [the US Senate], forces us to address what is inevitable as we look to the future, and that is a rapid-fire, one-after-another onslaught of new scientific technological innovation that has to be assimilated into our ethical-social fabric. Congressional Record February 3, 1998

What I said then still holds true today, Science and ethics must march hand in hand. Congressional Record February 11, 1998

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Twenty-Five Years After My House Call To Dolly: What Have We Learned About Cloning And How Did We Learn It? - Forbes

Weather forecasts for scorching hot, dry weather into future weeks, plus the knowledge that you have to get a 79-year-old tooth yanked, tends to put a damper on a week before it gets started.

Well, thats what happened to me. The weatherperson was correct on her forecasts, and Ive had the impending tooth yanking hanging over my head like the sword of Damocles for the past three weeks.

As of this writing, I can say the weather is still hot and humid, but the defective, decrepit molar is gone replaced by an irritating gap in my teeth thats hard to keep my tongue out of.

But, Im glad the deed is done and Im on the mend. Oh, when my dentist, ol Doc Polk N. Prodd asked me if I wanted to take the extracted tooth home with me, I said, Sure. Some smart person in 1,000 years will want to extract some tooth DNA from it and clone me.

So, Doc put the tooth into a cute little tooth-shaped plastic container and its now residing in a dresser drawer alongside a tooth a friend pulled three years ago.

***

For some rural folks, getting their hay put up for the winter is a major deal. But, not for me. The only reason I have hay put up at all is for my chicken flock to scratch in and eat grain during the winter and then put all the loose hay into my compost piles.

I need all of three big round bales to get me through the winter. So, I start the process in the fall by planting plots of wheat or rye and a legume mix. Then, in the spring, I plant oats in some plots.

My good neighbor, ol Rap Pittup, is good about putting up my hay in big round bales on the shares. I take my three bales from my grain plots and Rap gets the rest of my native grass hay for his trouble.

This years hay crop consisted of 11 big round bales three for me and eight for Rap. Its a good arrangement for both of us.

***

Rural sheriffs and their deputies, if they stay on the job long enuf, eventually take vehicle accident statements from drivers whose grasp of the English language comes up far short of competence.

Not long ago, I stumbled onto the following actual written auto/truck accident statements taken from insurance forms where car drivers tried to summarize accident details in as few words as possible. These statements are reportedly true, of which I have some doubts. But, they are humorous all the same. Here they are:

I drove into the wrong house. Collided with a tree I dont have.

The other car collided with mine without giving warning of its intent.

In my attempt to kill a fly, I drove into a telephone pole.

I had been shopping for plants all day and was on my way home. When I reached an intersection, a hedge sprang up, obscuring my vision and I did not see the other car.

I had been driving for 40 years when I fell asleep at the wheel and had an accident.

I was on my way to the doctor with rear end trouble when my universal joint gave way causing me to have an accident.

My car was legally parked as it backed into the other vehicle.

As I approached the intersection, a sign suddenly appeared in a place where no sign had ever appeared before, making me unable to avoid the accident.

I told the police I was not injured, but upon removing my hair, I found that I had a fractured skull.

I saw a slow, sad-faced old gentleman as he bounced off the hood of my car.

Cause of the accident was a little guy in a small car with a big mouth.

I was thrown from my car as it left the road, and was later found in a ditch by some stray cows.

A pedestrian hit me and went under my car.

I thought my window was down, but I found out it was up when I put my head through it.

The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.

The pedestrian had no idea which way to run, so I ran over him.

An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my car and vanished.

A truck backed through my windshield into my wifes face.

I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother-in-law, and headed over the embankment.

***

The statements above are not words of wisdom. But, for this week, here are a few words that are: No job is so simple that it cant be done wrong!

***

Dont melt. Stay cool and have a good un.

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Tooth DNA and possible cloning | TheFencePost.com - The Fence Post

When it comes to the sequel Star Wars movies, many fans have had thoughts, opinions and theories over the years. However, one of the most discussed topics introduced in JJ Abrams 2016 science fiction movie The Force Awakens was the Star Wars character Supreme Leader Snoke.

Although we know now, thanks to the events of the Rise of Skywalker, that Snoke was actually a clone created by Darth Sidious (aka Emperor Palpatine), many sci-fi buffs couldnt help but notice how similar he seemed to Grand Moff Tarkin from George Lucass original trilogy. Well, it turns out that despite Rise of Skywalkers cloning explanation, the comparisons between the two villains are bang on the money.

In an interview with Force Material, designer and sculptor Ivan Manzella shared how Snoke was based on the appearance of horror movie legend Peter Cushing.For those who may not know, Peter Cushing played the role of Tarkin in the 1977 action movie who was one of the films two central villains, with the other being Darth Vader.

JJ [Abrams] mentioned a Hammer House of Horror doll. So I based him on Peter Cushing, Manzella explained.

When I did the maquette, there are elements in the cheekbone and profile. It wasnt meant to be Cushing, but he was my Hammer reference.

Although Snoke didnt turn out to be Tarkin himself, fans will be pleased to know that they were somewhat right in all their observations. Albeit if it is just from an appearance standpoint instead of their expected Tarkin clone confirmation.

You can now watch all of the Star Wars movies on Disney Plus.

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Supreme Leader Snoke from Star Wars was based on Peter Cushing - The Digital Fix

ST PATRICKS ATHLETIC assistant manager Jon Daly joked that the ideal scenario for the Saints is cloning Chris Forrester so he can pass to himself.

But he hopes that getting him in a more advanced role will have Mura seeing double again on Thursday.

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The Saints fly to Slovenia on a charter tomorrow ahead of Thursdays Europa Conference League second leg after a 1-1 draw last week.

That draw was earned thanks to a stunning Forrester goal, as he put in another midfield masterclass that had Saints fans drooling.

It was just his second goal of the season and Forrester claimed last week that he should have more.

But Daly insisted that his lack of goals is down to having to ask him to sacrifice himself more for the team.

Daly said: Hes been harsh on himself in terms of what hes asked to do and how he does it. Hes played deeper to try get on the ball.

But when he does that you need a Chris Forrester higher up to give to.

Wed do well if we could clone him, getting him on the ball to pass to himself!

Were trying to identify players that can get on the ball and find him in pockets up the pitch.

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Our objective as a staff is to get him on the ball as close to their goal as we possibly can because we know he has that bit of magic to go and produce.

He plays with a freedom and its important you allow him play with that freedom.

Thats where the manager has been really good with him.

Hes had to do certain things for the team defensively within the structure but over the match youre looking for him to get on the ball.

He sees things that you dont see so you have to allow him to express himself. Hes a joy to watch. Sometimes he does things that have your heart in your mouth but you trust him to be in control of the situation.

Daly, who spent his entire playing career in England and Scotland, admitted he never knew how good Forrester was until he worked with him.

The former Rangers ace added: I heard of him from his time at Peterborough and at Aberdeen.

I probably didnt anticipate him being as good as he is.

I knew he had quality but hes a very, very good player. He does things in training and matches you just dont expect. Im sure as a fan hes the type of player you want to see getting on the ball.

Were lucky to have him.

But Daly acknowledged that Forresters performance last week will likely mean that Mura will make special plans for him.

He added: I would imagine they will definitely do their homework having seen him and they will identify him now.

Thats where you need other players in the team to step up.And the Saints assistant boss believes they have an entire team to worry Mura in Slovenia.

Daly continued: Weve got enough quality in the changing room, its not just about Forrester.

If they decide to man mark him out of the game, we know we can work in other areas.

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St. Pats assistant Jon Daly says Saints need another Chris Forrester and jokes hed love to clone the mid... - The Irish Sun

On the surface, Dorami was just an average mouse. She grew to a healthy weight, had pups of her own, and died naturally near her second birthdayroughly 70 years in human age, and completely unexceptional for a lab mouse.

Except for one thing: Dorami was cloned from freeze-dried cells. And not just any cellshe was cloned from somatic cells (the cells that make up our bodies) rather than sperm or eggs.

Dorami is the latest foray into a decades-long push to use cloning as a way to preserve biodiversity. The triumph of Dolly the sheep made it clear that its possible to revive animals using reproductive cells. The dream of restoring extinct animals, or biobanking current ones, has captured the imagination of scientists ever since. One powerful way to preserve a species DNA is to store sperm in liquid nitrogen. At roughly -320 degrees Fahrenheit, the cells can be frozen in time for years.

But theres one hiccup. Collecting reproductive cells from animals on the brink of extinction isto put it mildlyextremely difficult. In contrast, scratching off a few skin cells or shaving some fur is relatively simple. These cells contain the animals complete DNA, but theyre fragile.

The new study, led by Dr. Teruhiko Wakayama at the University of Yamanashi in Japan, made the leap from sperm to skin. Developing a highly technical recipe that would make any fine-dining chef proud, the team successfully cloned 75 healthy mice from freeze-dried somatic cells collected from both male and female donors. Many offspring, including Dorami, went on to have pups of their own.

With a success rate of roughly five percent at mostand as low as 0.2 percentthe technique is far from efficient. But the strategy carves a path towards the bigger picture: our ability to store and potentially revive genetic variations of near-extinct species.

To Dr. Ben Novak, lead scientist at Revive & Restore, the study is a welcome advance despite its imperfections. From a conservation standpoint, innovating new ways to biobank reproductively viable tissue types is a big needso its really exciting to see this kind of breakthrough, he said.

Cells are finicky creatures. Imagine a watery blob with tiny molecular factories tethered to its balloon-like walls. Freezing a cell without protection can cause the watery components to form sharp ice crystals, which damage the cells inner components and puncture the cell wall. When heated back up to normal temperatures, like a leaking pincushion, the cell doesnt have a chance for survival.

Scientists eventually figured out a winning recipe for preserving cells: the key is adding a chemical antifreeze and storing the cells in heavy metal tanks of liquid nitrogen. The cells are suspended in tiny vials inside boxes that slide into a tower-like metal cage. Depending on the cell type, they can be preserved for years. The problem? The setup is expensive, hard to maintain, and prone to power failures. Any disruptions could cause catastrophic loss in all the samples. For biodiversity, its not always feasible to have such a sophisticated setup near the animal.

Theres got to be a better way.

Years ago, Wakayama went on a crusade to push the limits of cell storage. He focused on one specific method: freeze-drying. Mostly known to backpackers and astronauts as a way to preserve nutrients in food, freeze-drying cells turned out to be relatively simple. At the turn of the century, Wakayama and his team showed its possible to freeze-dry sperm for reproduction. The recipe was so robust it kept sperm alive for years aboard the International Space Station, while being bombarded with ambient levels of radiation. It also led to live offspring after being chucked into a desk drawer for a year without climate control.

Somatic cells are a different matter. Unlike sperm, the cells that make up our bodies are far more prone to water molecules hugging our DNA structure, with a more fragile nucleus. When frozen, it means that the cells can experience far more damage, making them unusable for cloning.

To date, the only cells that have produced offspring after freeze drying are mature spermatozoa [sperm], the team wrote.

The new work went for the impossible: can we clone an animal from freeze-dried somatic cells?

In the first round of experiments, the team isolated cells from female mice that usually support the egg cell. They tossed the cells in two protective chemicals and freeze-dried the samples in liquid nitrogen. It wasnt pretty: the protective membrane of all the cells broke, with signs of shatteredbut relatively intactDNA.

Plowing ahead, the team then rehydrated the frozen sample after up to eight months in storage. From the lifeless powder they isolated the nuclei, the seed-like structure housing DNA, and transplanted it into an egg cell that had its genetic material sucked out. Its like replacing the text of one book with anothercompletely changing its biological meaning.

It got more complicated. These initial edited egg cells couldnt reproduce, likely due to DNA and epigenetic damage. As a workaround, the team used the cells to form multiple embryonic cell lines. These are resilient workers, especially efficient at correcting DNA damage.

Once thriving, the team then sucked out their genetic material and injected it into eggs from mice with black fur. The resulting embryos were left to develop in mice with white furthe surrogate mother. All resulting pups took on the shiny black fur of their DNA donors, with perfectly normal weights and fertility.

After maturation, we randomly selected nine female and three male cloned mice for mating with normal lab mice, the team explained. In roughly three months, all of the cloned female mice gave birth to the next generationwith four paws, whiskers, and mousey-habits intact. Repeating the experiment with skin cells from the tip of the tail, the team cloned another dozen or so mice.

The recipe didnt exactly go as planned. In one strange trial, the team used cells from male mice to clone the next generation, and all of the offspring became females. Digging deeper, they found that somehow the Y chromosomedesignating a biological malegot lost during the process, leading to an all-female island of Themyscira. To the authors, its a kink in the process, but not a blowout for practical use. These results suggest that even if Y chromosome loss does occur, this technique can still be used to the available genetic resources in extreme circumstances, such as almost extinct species, they said.

The technique is far from perfect. Its tedious, has low success rates, and still requires freezer storage temperatures that make it prone to energy grid failures.

To Dr. Alena Pance at the University of Hertfordshire, who was not involved in the study, the most important question is how long the genetic material can be stored. It would be paramount to show extended, indefinite storage in these conditions for this system to provide an effective long term preservation of species and samples, she said.

The authors agree that there are more mysteries. The body may have a harder time repairing DNA damage in somatic cells compared to sperm, which draws away their energy from developing a fully-functioning egg. Their epigeneticswhich regulates how genes turn on or offmay also be messed up because of incomplete reprogramming.

Ultimately, this is just the first step. Somatic cells are easier to capture compared to reproductive ones, especially for infertile or juvenile animals. Doing it easier and cheaper is a plus. The team is now looking to capture genetic material from cadavers or feces to broaden the scope.

The approach described in this work offers an alternative to present banking methods and certainly allowing more permissive temperatures would be a great advantage, said Pance.

Image Credit: Wakayama et. al./Nature Communications

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Scientists Cloned Mice From Freeze-Dried Skin Cells, Opening the Door to Biopreservation - Singularity Hub

David Milarch is on a mission, to clone the world's oldest and largest trees and preserve them for humanity.

"This tree was 1,000 years old when Jesus walked the Earth," says David Milarch, showing a seedling of a giant sequoia which he cloned from an existing tree.

David set up the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive in 1994. The NGO clones the world's most ancient trees, mostly giant sequoias and redwoods.

"The redwoods that we're cloning are 2,000-4,000 years old, and we have no idea how they can be that old," says Milarch.

"It's like finding a family somewhere in a remote area, where people are 200 to 300 years old. Wouldn't you want to study their genetics and find out how they're able to live for so long?"

The archive studies the genetics of ancient trees, before cloning them and planting them back in their native forests. Their aim is to reforest the Earth with trees that are resistant to global warming.

The world's last remaining sequoias are limited to 75 groves, scattered along a narrow belt of the western Sierra Nevada in California, US. They have massive trunks with bark as thick as 45 cm and can grow over 90 metres tall.

Giant sequoias, having survived thousands of years of wildfires and diseases, are now in danger of being wiped out by increasingly intense wildfires fuelled by climate change.

Large sequoias had never been incinerated before 2015, and the destruction of the majestic trees hit unprecedented levels last year when 10-14% of the 75,000 trees larger than 122 cm in diameter were destroyed.

One famous member of this family, General Sherman, is thought to be the largest tree on Earth by volume. An independent study found that this single tree can store about 86 years worth of a person's carbon emissions.

Milarch says that these ancient trees have the capacity to sequester ten times more CO2 than an average tree.

He believes that one way of reversing climate change is to repopulate the planet with these ancient trees.

"We found 130 different species of trees all over the world. We found 22 1,000-year-old oaks in Ireland," says Milarch.

He believes it is possible to clone 5 million trees in four years, using one tiny piece of a healthy ancient tree. The samples come from the top branches, which are then added to a sterile foam cube, along with a mix of hormones.

"We went from a 3-4 per cent success rate to a 97 per cent success rate by using these foam cubes with the hormones," says Milarch.

To avoid monoculture and promote diversity, the DNA of the strongest and most ancient trees is mixed, which helps these trees to be resistant to diseases.

"So country by country, continent by continent, you want to find the largest, healthiest native species of that country," says Milarch.

By cooperating with laboratories around the world, he thinks it is possible to create hundreds of millions of highly resistant native species.

However, to make a real difference, the world needs billions of these trees.

Watch the video to learn more about these ancient trees.

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Meet the man cloning the world's oldest trees to fight climate change - Euronews

Cloning in Biology: Can we create an organism that looks exactly like the other organism? Can an organism have the same morphological and genetic composition? What is such a process called? The answer to all such questions is cloning. When the word cloning is uttered, the mind connects it to the birth of the cloned sheep Dolly. In 1998, the birth of Dolly became sensational news all over the world, and soon, debate began about human cloning. Today our understanding of the very word cloning has expanded, and we know many other types of cloning too. Cloning means creating identical copies. Plants cannot be omitted from the discussion of cloning, but being less complicated organisms than animals, they have been cloned for ages. Read this article to learn more about cloning, its types, processes and much more.

Cloning simply means creating exact replicas or copies. Cloning in biotechnology refers to the process of creating identical copies of either DNA fragments, cells or organisms. The organism which has the identical genetic make-up and the morphological attributes of the source organism is called a clone, while the process is called cloning.

Based on the origin of the process, we can have two main types of cloning, i.e. natural cloning and artificial cloning:

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Early experiments on reproductive cloning began some (40) years ago through a process known as embryo splitting. In this procedure, a single two-celled stage embryo was split manually into two cells, and then each cell was grown as an identical embryo. In (1924,) Hans Spemann and his student Hilde Mangold performed some experiments of somatic cell nucleus transfer (SCNT) in amphibian embryos. This was considered the first step towards animal cloning.

In (1996,) Ian Wilmut and his team announced the successful cloning of a sheep, Dolly. This was a major breakthrough. Dolly was cloned using the same technique of somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). The cloning of Dolly was significant because she was the first mammal to be cloned successfully using an adult somatic cell. The birth of Dolly was also significant because it demonstrated that a nucleus could be dedifferentiated and redesigned to develop into a new organism.

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Fig: SCNT procedure used in the cloning of Dolly

Cloning means creating identical copies. Biotechnologically, cloning refers to creating identical copies of DNA fragments, cells or animals. Cells and animals cloned are genetically identical to the source organism. Cloning can be of two types, i.e. natural and artificial. Propagation by vegetative and asexual reproductive methods are be considered natural cloning methods. Artificial cloning primarily refers to the biotechnological process of creating clones. However, human reproductive cloning has technological limitations, and the current techniques are not sufficient to create a human clone. It is also legally banned in many countries and is related to many ethical controversies.

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Q.1. Can humans be cloned?Ans: Reproductive human cloning is not possible as of now due to technological limitations and ethical controversies. It is also legally banned in many countries. However, therapeutic human cloning for obtaining stem cells is being practised for research purposes only.

Q.2. Why is human cloning banned?Ans: Human cloning is banned mainly for religious controversies associated with it. It is also feared that human clones could be abused in many ways. Seventy countries have legally banned human cloning.

Q.3. What is cloning?Ans: The organism which has the identical genetic make-up and the morphological attributes of the source organism is called a clone, while the process is called cloning.

Q.4. When was the first human cloned?Ans: The first hybrid human clone was developed in (1998) by scientists at Advanced Cell Technology, USA. They created a hybrid clone by taking the nucleus from mans leg cells and inserting it into a cows egg cell from which the nucleus was removed. This embryo died after (12) days.

Q.5. How is DNA cloning done?Ans: DNA cloning is done either by rDNA technology (genetic engineering) or by PCR technique. Reproductiveand therapeutic cloning (whole new organisms are produced) is done primarily by a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).

We hope this detailed article on Cloning helps you in your preparation. If you get stuck do let us know in the comments section below and we will get back to you at the earliest.

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Cloning in Biology: Benefits, Types of Cloning, Human Cloning Facts

Love Island viewers have been left baffled after appearing to spot a 'clone' of one of the islanders during last night's episode.

Wednesday's episode saw more Ekin-Su-based drama as she had the choice of three men, eventually choosing Davide to couple up with.

This resulted in Danica coupling up with Jay, despite him rejecting her earlier in the day. Jay had been getting to know Antigoni, who was left understandably frustrated by the sequence of events.

For some viewers though it wasn't the recoupling drama that caught their attention, but the appearance of an apparent clone of contestant Dami.

Initially, Dami can be seen with some of the other boys around the firepit as they ask Jay how he feels about being picked by Danica.

But in the background of the shot, a figure wearing what seems to be the exact same clothes can be seen walking off towards the kitchen area.

Taking to Twitter to share a clip of the weird moment, one person asked why there were "two Dami's on the screen?"

Another said: "Seeing double in #LoveIsland tonight, anyone know why Dami had to clone himself?"

And a third wrote: "Hows Dami at the fire pit and walking off with the girls in the same frame?"

Some joked that perhaps Dami cloning himself was the only way to keep up with the amount of contestants who have been asking him for "counselling service" in recent days.

Love Island continues tonight at 9pm on ITV2 and ITV Hub.

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Love Island viewers baffled after spotting clone in the villa during last nights episode - JOE.co.uk