NEW YORK, Dec. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Researchers at a small Boston area biotech company have created the most developed human clone embryo yet. The cloned embryo grew to at least 16 cells, a stage of development where it becomes useful for stem cell research, WIRED magazine reports in its January issue. The magazine will be on newsstands on Tuesday, December 23, and at www.wired.com/wired.
Writing for WIRED magazine, Wendy Goldman Rohm witnessed the breakthrough experiment which in pursuit of stem cells yielded both human clone embryos and human parthenotes, embryo-like balls of cells that have only one set of chromosomes.
The company, Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) of Worcester, Massachusetts, has been involved with therapeutic cloning for some time. In 2001, company researchers grew human clone embryos to six cells. Since then, there have been no published reports of human clone embryos surviving more than a few cell divisions.
Although researchers at the company are focused on only therapeutic cloning, the experiment indicates that science has reached a point where human reproductive cloning may be possible.
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