Is therapeutic cloning or somatic cell nuclear transfer necessary in Michigan?
Until recently, nuclear transfer or therapeutic cloning was the only way that scientists imagined it would be possible to derive patient-specific cell lines. But in the past year, it became possible to derive patient-specific pluripotent lines by reprogramming adult human cells, making so-called iPS cells. Given this change in the scientific landscape, and given that it has never been possible to do nuclear transfer successfully with human eggs, nobody in Michigan wants to pursue cloning. Nonetheless, iPS cells cannot replace the derivation of ES cells because iPS cells could never be used in patients due to their predisposition to cancer.
