Dolly
Dolly (5 July 1996 – 14 February 2003) was a female Finn-Dorset sheep and the first mammal that was cloned from an adult somatic cell.
Initially referred to as “6LL3” in the academic paper describing the work, the lamb was later named Dolly, after the singer Dolly Parton.
She was cloned by associates of the Roslin Institute in Scotland, using the process of nuclear transfer from a cell taken from a mammary gland.
Her cloning proved that a cloned organism could be produced from a mature cell from a specific body part.
The successful cloning of Dolly led to widespread advancements within stem cell research, including the discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells.
She was euthanized at the age of six years due to a progressive lung disease.
No cause which linked the disease to her cloning was found.
Dolly was cloned by Keith Campbell, Ian Wilmut and colleagues at the Roslin Institute.
Why it is in news?
Ian Wilmut, the cloning pioneer whose work was critical to the creation of Dolly the Sheep in 1996, has died.
Wilmut set off a global discussion about the ethics of cloning when he announced that his team at the university's Roslin Institute for animal biosciences had cloned a lamb using the nucleus of a cell from an adult sheep.
Wilmut, a trained embryologist, later focused on using cloning techniques to make stem cells that could be used in regenerative medicine.
His work was critical to research that aims to treat genetic and degenerative diseases by helping the body repair damaged tissue.
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