Researchers Fear Backlash Over Cloning Projects At WSU, UI Could Be Impeded, They Say

Stepped-up government efforts to regulate cloning research are breeding concern among Palouse scientists.

While neither Washington State University nor the University of Idaho is cloning domestic animals, both have the technological capability and a variety of ongoing cloning-related studies. Researchers warn that curbs on cloning could impede legitimate studies.

“The press and the public have generated a very big concern about this,” said Michael Skinner, director of WSU’s fledgling Center for Reproductive Biology. “If there are a lot of regulations that go into play, that could severely interfere with our ability to do research.”

Last month, Scottish researchers successfully cloned a sheep from an adult cell, while Oregon scientists disclosed this month that they had created two monkeys from cloned embryos.

Public outcry that advances are outpacing ethical guidelines prompted President Clinton to ban the use of federal grants for research on cloning humans. He called on private companies, universities and foundations to adopt similar moratoriums.

Clinton also gave the National Bioethics Advisory Board 90 days to report on the legal and ethical implications of human cloning. And several state legislatures, including New York and Florida, have begun drafting bans.

“The fact that bills are going through states uncontrolled without any scientists’ input is what concerns us,” Skinner said.

Fish, trees and plants are being cloned at UI and WSU. Genetic and embryonic research on mice, rabbits and sheep involves many of the cloning processes. More than a dozen departments conduct gene replication.

One of the most significant, and perhaps ethically sensitive, biotechnology developments may be the Center for Reproductive Biology that Skinner was recruited to WSU this year to establish. He is moving lab equipment, a team of four postdoctoral students and a research assistant from the University of California-San Francisco’s Reproductive Endocrine Center to a lab being prepared in Pullman.

The center will pool 40 WSU and UI scientists’ knowledge to study fetal development, fertility, breast and prostate cancer, reproductive tract diseases and implantation pregnancies.

Publicly funded research using live human embryos is prohibited now in the United States. But other forms of human tissue research and certain cloning processes are important for learning more about how genes express themselves in sickness and health and how animals and people grow, researchers maintain.

While WSU could clone animals, Skinner said, few researchers are interested in just generating offspring.

“If it were required for some of the questions we wanted to ask, we could do that,” Skinner said. “Not for the sake of cloning, but for studying a disease state, for example.”

That’s what zoology/genetics professor Gary Thorgaard has been doing since 1982 - creating uniform generations of cloned rainbow trout to study cancer treatment.

The cloning of a sheep from an adult cell is a surprising scientific development, Thorgaard said. In fact, he already is altering his General Genetics 301 curriculum.

“I think it will be a big shift for all the mammal research,” Thorgaard said.

Raymond Wright, Animal Sciences Department chairman, agrees.

“This is such a surprise finding. The first step is to try to duplicate what they did,” Wright said. “I’m sure there’s an interest.”

Wright’s research with mice embryos aims to perfect the process for improving livestock genes, potentially increasing disease resistance and boosting reproductivity in cattle.

Scientists disagree about whether the concern about human cloning is justified. While Skinner calls the public outcry “reactionary and knee-jerk,” Thorgaard said he believes the news should give pause.

Cloning excitement surged in the 1940s when the freezing of bull semen was accomplished and again in the ‘60s with embryonic transfer. The first test-tube baby in the ‘80s also prompted cloning debates.

David Lineback, University of Idaho agriculture dean, recalls lecturing 30 years ago about human cloning and other technologies that seemed farfetched.

“It is interesting to see the blue-sky, science-fiction sort of things starting to come about,” Lineback said.

While he says he believes human cloning still is far off, the public debate is crucial, Lineback said.

“You have to get the ethicists and the scientists together to look at what’s proper.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: LAB PLANNED The Center for Reproductive Biology will pool WSU and UI scientists’ knowledge to study such ethically sensitive issues as fetal development.