INTRODUCTION
Islam is a religion of truth and it is a rational religion. The Glorious Qur'an denounces irrational religion as religion evidently false. Again and again the Qur'an urges men to use their reason, to ponder and to reflect. While the West thinks there is conflict between religion and science, but for Muslims there is no conflict between Islam and Science. According to Dr. George Sarton, former Professor of History of Science at Harvard University Islam is responsible for the meteoric rise of sciences during the middle ages while Europeans lived in the dark ages. This is because both the Qur'an and Prophet Muhammad (S.A.S) extolled the Muslims to learn, to seek education and knowledge. In Islam there is no distinction between secular education and religious education.
The Noble Qur'an is not a scientific treatise. It is a book of guidance, a book of wisdom. However there are more than 1200 verses (Ayath) which can be interpreted in the light of modern science. The Qur'an gave a great impetus to learning, particularly in the field of natural sciences. The Qur'an Majid may be called the cause of modern scientific and material progress.
PAIRS IN LIVING THINGS
One of the most recent of all scientific discoveries is that everything in the universe exists in pairs such as male and female among living things. Now we find that rock crystals also have pairs.
The Qur'an says:
And of everything We have created pairs: That ye may receive Instruction.
Surah Zariyat, 51: 49 A. Yusuf All in note 5025 item (3) says " All things are in twos: sex in plants and animals, by which one individual is complementary to another; in the subtle forces of nature. Day and Night, positive and negative electricity, forces of attraction and repulsion: and numerous other opposites, each fulfilling its purpose, and contributing to the working of God's Universe; and in the moral and spiritual world. Love and Aversion, Mercy and Justice, Striving and Rest, and so on;-all fulfilling their functions according to the Artistry and wonderful Purpose of God. Everything has its counterpart, or pair, or complement. God alone is One, with none like Him, or needed to complement Him. These are noble things to contemplate. And they lead us to a true understanding of God's Purpose and Message."
Surah TA HA 20: 53
Sex in plants was discovered in the 1890s. The knowledge that plants have life, their male and female characteristics, pollination and fertilization is found in the Qur'an which was revealed 1400 years ago.
PAIRS OF WHICH THEY HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE
The most astounding fact of all is that pairs exist at the atomic (nuclear particles, electrons) and subatomic particles levels. The Qur'an very clearly states:
Surah YASEEN 36: 36
In note 3981 Yusuf Ali says "The mystery of sex runs through all creation, -in man, in animal life, in vegetable life, and possibly in other things of which we have no knowledge. Then there are pairs of opposite forces in nature, e.g., positive and negative electricity, etc. The atom itself consists of positively charged nucleus or proton, surrounded by negatively charged electrons. The constitution of matter itself is thus referred to pairs of opposite energies."
The purpose of this article is to reflect and interpret in detail the Qur'anic statement " And (other) things of which they have no knowledge." Man had no knowledge of the structure of the atom until the early part of the twentieth century. Scores of subatomic particles have been discovered recently and many are yet to be discovered. Nick Herbert says in his book "FASTER THAN LIGHT" (published by New American Library, New York, 1988, p.144)
"Today the physicists have generalized Dirac's result and predict that all elementary particles come in pairs, the existence of a certain particle implied that a corresponding antiparticle also exists."
In 1930, British Theoretical Physicist and Nobel Laureate in Physics P.A.M. Dirac based on mathematical equations predicted the existence of antielectron, reverse electron or positron. This is the first "electron-positron" pair at the elementary particle level postulated then. In 1932 Carl Anderson using a particle detector called cloud chamber detected the positron in Cosmic rays which flood the entire universe including the earth.
As we know the nucleus of an atom contains positively charged particles called protons and neutrons with no charge but have the same mass as protons. The electron revolves around the nucleus. This is the structure of an atom. The nucleon (proton or neutron) is quite heavy compared to the mass of an electron. The mass of a nucleon is 1836 times the mass of an electron. The particles whose mass is between the mass of an electron and the mass of a nucleon are called mesons (intermediate). Muons are 207 times as massive as electrons. Pions are 270 times as massive as electrons. There are three kinds of Pions: positively charged, neutral, and negatively charged. A photon or a neutrino has zero charge and zero mass. A nucleon (proton or neutron) consists of three quarks. The following definitions will be helpful to the readers in understanding the Tables listing the subatomic particles in pairs.
Baryon: a heavy particle
Nucleon: a proton or neutron
Hyperon: a baryon that is heavier than a nucleon
Meson: a particle of medium mass (between an electron and a nucleon)
Hadron: any particle that can take part in a strong interaction (such as baryons and mesons)
Lepton: a particle of low or zero mass that can experience electromagnetic forces or the weak force.
The masses of the particles are expressed in energy units called MeV (million electron Volts). The mass of an electron is expressed as 0.511 MeV and the mass of a nucleon is equal to 938 MeV. A particle whose mass is between 0.511 MeV and 1000 MeV is a meson. A particle whose mass is greater than 1000 MeV is a Hyperon.
Particle and antiparticle constitutes a pair. Electron and positron is a pair. Proton and antiproton is a pair. Neutron and antineutron is a pair. The details of the stable and semistable particles along with their counter particles are shown in the Tables.
TABLE OF FUNDAMENTAL PARTICLES SHOWING THE PAIR
Monday, January 22, 2007
Science and Sunnah: The Genetic Code
HADITH 4
On the authority of Abu 'Abd ar-Rahman 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (May Allah be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of Allah (may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) and he is the truthful, the believed, narrated to us:
Verily the creation of each one of you is brought together in his mother's belly for forty days in the form of seed, then he is a clot of blood for a like period, then a morsel of flesh for a like period, then there is sent to him the angel who blows the breath of life into him and who is commanded about four matters: to write down his means of livelihood, his life span. His actions, and whether happy or unhappy. By Allah, other than Whom there is no god, verily one of you behaves like the people of Paradise until there is but an arm's length between him and it. And that which has been written overtakes him and so he behaves like the people of Hell-fire and thus he enters it; and one of you behaves like the people of Hellfire until there is but an arm's length between him and it. And that which has been written overtakes him and so he behaves like the people of Paradise and thus he enters it. It was related by al-Bukhari and Muslim,
(Ref: An-Nawawi's "Forty Hadith". Translated by Ezzeddin Ibrahim and Denys Johnson-Davis. The Holy Koran Publishing House, Damascus, Syria, 1977, pp. 36-38.)
There are some Muslim thinkers who do not like the interpretation of Qur'an or Sunnah in terms of scientific terminology. However, the author believes there is nothing wrong in attempting to understand or interpret "Islam" in the light of modern knowledge. Through this article the author wants to encourage freethinking, stimulate research ideas among Muslim scholars, scientists and students so that our understanding of Qur'an and Sunnah can be furthered.
This Sunnah deals with the creation of human beings which is mentioned in great detail in Al-Qur'an. However, the astounding and astonishing matter about this Hadith is the angel who blows the breath of life into man and writes down four matters: (1) his means of Livelihood, (2) his life span, (3) his actions, and (4) whether happy or unhappy.
Before the scientific discovery of the Genetic Code and the award of Nobel Prizes to the three discoverers in 1968, it was humanly impossible to scientifically understand this Hadith. In 1990s, we are able to unravel the genetic code with regard to a person's inheritance of certain disease carrying genes. This information may tell us about an individual's life span and/or whether he will be happy or unhappy. Science is yet to discover the genes responsible for a person's "rizq" (food habits, dietetic profile, etc.) and a person's "actions" or behavior such as Type A, B, or C personality.
The present article attempts to show our current knowledge in our ability to perform genetic screening in order to understand a person's inheritance of carrying or developing a certain disease through the study of that person's genes. Our knowledge is still incomplete and we are very far away in attaining the knowledge about the four matters mentioned in this Hadith.
Inside the nucleus of a living cell there are 46 chromosomes which are visible only when the cell divides. The chromosomes are made of DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid. A certain length of the DNA is called the gene. That length of DNA that codes for complete synthesis of a protein is also called a gene. Along the 46 chromosomes of every human cell are some 100,000 genes. The U.S. Government is funding a $3 billion, 15-year Human Genome Project, under the joint leadership of the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy, which will allow scientists to know exactly where on our chromosomes each of our 100,000 genes reside. Among these 100,000 genes, there are a few genes, which can be lethal. Every person has a unique set of these seven or eight deadly genes. They are usually hidden, but in the wrong environment or in combination with certain other genes they can express themselves in dangerous ways. Some families carry genetic diseases for generations and they know what type of lethal genes they carry. Most of the people do not know if they carry any genetically defective genes.
In the near future it is possible to get a blue print of our genetic inheritance-and with the knowledge of the most likely cause of our own death. This test can be performed by walking into a physician's office and giving a blood sample with a finger prick. The results of the test reveal if a person has any defective genes that will cause a certain disease or the result may be negative in which case that person will not carry the disease. Most of the adult-onset diseases involve several genes. For example there are at least 17 genes responsible for just one aspect of coronary heart disease-and the genes express themselves only under certain conditions. For most of the genetic diseases it is impossible to predict with a certainty. Geneticists now say that diabetes, hypertension, and cancer run in families. In other words these diseases are genetically inherited. Geneticists can treat adults for the presence of a handful of relatively rare genes - among them those that cause Huntington's disease (causes progressive brain degeneration); adult polycystic kidney disease (causes gradual loss of kidney function); polypsos (this condition leads to colon cancer); hemochromatosis (which could cause liver failure); and certain forms of cancer such as retinoblastoma, some leukemias, and small-cell carcinoma of the lung.
There are two important questions, which have not been answered so far. The first one is whether knowledge of the information is itself potentially hazardous to the individual; and the second one is whether institutions will misuse that knowledge to promote their own dominance and control.
There are two types of tests: prenatal tests and genetic screening tests. The prenatal tests inform future parents of a child's chances of inheriting a condition for which the parent is a carrier-Tay-Sachs disease, sickle cell disease, cystic fibrosis- or of inheriting a condition from which a family member has already died-muscular dystrophy, hemophilia, beta-thalassemia. The genetic screening test tells the adults about their own genetic destiny. But do we really want to know? Are we willing to learn the details of our genetic destiny-especially when it involves diseases for which there is no cure? Are we capable of understanding the uncertainties inherent in this high-tech fortunetelling?
Adult polycystic kidney disease comes late in age and causes degenerative condition of the kidneys resulting in gradual loss of kidney function. It is carried on a single, dominant gene. If a man has the disease, then his son has a 50-50 chance of having the gene and if he has two daughters, their chances of having the disease is also 50-50. Usually this disease strikes when one is in his or her 110's. The genetic test only tells whether a persons has the gene that causes the disease, but it doesn't tell whether that person gets the disease in his UO ' s or in his late 60's. No treatment exists to prevent kidney failure in polycystic kidney patients.
There is a certain amount of unwillingness on the part of humans to know their future. However there are individuals who have taken the tests for the occurrence of Huntington's disease which is a neurological disease, a progressive and untreatable brain and muscle degeneration with symptoms that usually show themselves in the 40's. The chances of inheriting this disease
causing gene is also 50-50. Those who took the test and whose results were positive, there were no instances of suicide and only one of severe depression, and one marital breakup among the 71 patients screened.
Nancy Wexler of the Hereditary Disease Foundation says "If the information is limiting, enervating, depressing, if it tears at your self-esteem, if it gives you nothing to do, it might be better not to know." She devoted her professional life to the search for the gene for Huntington's disease which killed her mother and for which she and her sister are at risk.
Scientists stress that the results of genetic testing are ambiguous: genes alone do not determine a disease's prognosis. One can say whether or not an individual appears to have the gene, and those who have the gene have gone on to develop the disease. But one cannot say anything about when the disease will start, what will be the course of the disease, and what will be the relevant aspects of the illness.
The danger comes when imprecise tests are used inorder to predict the future, and when institutions actually use them to construct the future: when employers refuse to hire or train individuals at high risk of dying in their prime; when health-insurance companies insist on knowing the genetic profiles of their potential subscribers before paying for pre-existing genetic conditions; when schools require a permanent genetic record to anticipate which children will exhibit behavioral problems or learning disabilities. In United States genetic discrimination already exists. The risk of increasing the number of people defined as unemployable, uneducable or uninsurable exists. Genetic tests can identify employees who are susceptible to workplace toxins and companies may prohibit hiring such employees because they may contract occupational illnesses. 17 companies out of 500 had used genetic tests within the last 12 years, and 59 were considering the possibility. There is the danger of using the genetic tests for purposes of "eugenics." Eugenics means the deliberate manipulation of the gene pool with the idea of creating a master race. Defective people walking around may not be allowed to reproduce for the betterment of society.
Many of the conditions that will be uncovered through genetic studies are not life threatening, but might not fit into some societal scheme: genetic dyslexia, for example; genetic shyness; genetic arrogance; genetic left-handedness.
It is known that left-handed people have shorter life expectancies, which is relevant to insurance companies. But left-handed people may suffer for lack of knowledge whether left-handedness occurs for reasons other than genetic. They may be construed from birth as brain-damaged.
Allah is all knowing.
On the authority of Abu 'Abd ar-Rahman 'Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (May Allah be pleased with him), who said: The Messenger of Allah (may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) and he is the truthful, the believed, narrated to us:
Verily the creation of each one of you is brought together in his mother's belly for forty days in the form of seed, then he is a clot of blood for a like period, then a morsel of flesh for a like period, then there is sent to him the angel who blows the breath of life into him and who is commanded about four matters: to write down his means of livelihood, his life span. His actions, and whether happy or unhappy. By Allah, other than Whom there is no god, verily one of you behaves like the people of Paradise until there is but an arm's length between him and it. And that which has been written overtakes him and so he behaves like the people of Hell-fire and thus he enters it; and one of you behaves like the people of Hellfire until there is but an arm's length between him and it. And that which has been written overtakes him and so he behaves like the people of Paradise and thus he enters it. It was related by al-Bukhari and Muslim,
(Ref: An-Nawawi's "Forty Hadith". Translated by Ezzeddin Ibrahim and Denys Johnson-Davis. The Holy Koran Publishing House, Damascus, Syria, 1977, pp. 36-38.)
There are some Muslim thinkers who do not like the interpretation of Qur'an or Sunnah in terms of scientific terminology. However, the author believes there is nothing wrong in attempting to understand or interpret "Islam" in the light of modern knowledge. Through this article the author wants to encourage freethinking, stimulate research ideas among Muslim scholars, scientists and students so that our understanding of Qur'an and Sunnah can be furthered.
This Sunnah deals with the creation of human beings which is mentioned in great detail in Al-Qur'an. However, the astounding and astonishing matter about this Hadith is the angel who blows the breath of life into man and writes down four matters: (1) his means of Livelihood, (2) his life span, (3) his actions, and (4) whether happy or unhappy.
Before the scientific discovery of the Genetic Code and the award of Nobel Prizes to the three discoverers in 1968, it was humanly impossible to scientifically understand this Hadith. In 1990s, we are able to unravel the genetic code with regard to a person's inheritance of certain disease carrying genes. This information may tell us about an individual's life span and/or whether he will be happy or unhappy. Science is yet to discover the genes responsible for a person's "rizq" (food habits, dietetic profile, etc.) and a person's "actions" or behavior such as Type A, B, or C personality.
The present article attempts to show our current knowledge in our ability to perform genetic screening in order to understand a person's inheritance of carrying or developing a certain disease through the study of that person's genes. Our knowledge is still incomplete and we are very far away in attaining the knowledge about the four matters mentioned in this Hadith.
Inside the nucleus of a living cell there are 46 chromosomes which are visible only when the cell divides. The chromosomes are made of DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid. A certain length of the DNA is called the gene. That length of DNA that codes for complete synthesis of a protein is also called a gene. Along the 46 chromosomes of every human cell are some 100,000 genes. The U.S. Government is funding a $3 billion, 15-year Human Genome Project, under the joint leadership of the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy, which will allow scientists to know exactly where on our chromosomes each of our 100,000 genes reside. Among these 100,000 genes, there are a few genes, which can be lethal. Every person has a unique set of these seven or eight deadly genes. They are usually hidden, but in the wrong environment or in combination with certain other genes they can express themselves in dangerous ways. Some families carry genetic diseases for generations and they know what type of lethal genes they carry. Most of the people do not know if they carry any genetically defective genes.
In the near future it is possible to get a blue print of our genetic inheritance-and with the knowledge of the most likely cause of our own death. This test can be performed by walking into a physician's office and giving a blood sample with a finger prick. The results of the test reveal if a person has any defective genes that will cause a certain disease or the result may be negative in which case that person will not carry the disease. Most of the adult-onset diseases involve several genes. For example there are at least 17 genes responsible for just one aspect of coronary heart disease-and the genes express themselves only under certain conditions. For most of the genetic diseases it is impossible to predict with a certainty. Geneticists now say that diabetes, hypertension, and cancer run in families. In other words these diseases are genetically inherited. Geneticists can treat adults for the presence of a handful of relatively rare genes - among them those that cause Huntington's disease (causes progressive brain degeneration); adult polycystic kidney disease (causes gradual loss of kidney function); polypsos (this condition leads to colon cancer); hemochromatosis (which could cause liver failure); and certain forms of cancer such as retinoblastoma, some leukemias, and small-cell carcinoma of the lung.
There are two important questions, which have not been answered so far. The first one is whether knowledge of the information is itself potentially hazardous to the individual; and the second one is whether institutions will misuse that knowledge to promote their own dominance and control.
There are two types of tests: prenatal tests and genetic screening tests. The prenatal tests inform future parents of a child's chances of inheriting a condition for which the parent is a carrier-Tay-Sachs disease, sickle cell disease, cystic fibrosis- or of inheriting a condition from which a family member has already died-muscular dystrophy, hemophilia, beta-thalassemia. The genetic screening test tells the adults about their own genetic destiny. But do we really want to know? Are we willing to learn the details of our genetic destiny-especially when it involves diseases for which there is no cure? Are we capable of understanding the uncertainties inherent in this high-tech fortunetelling?
Adult polycystic kidney disease comes late in age and causes degenerative condition of the kidneys resulting in gradual loss of kidney function. It is carried on a single, dominant gene. If a man has the disease, then his son has a 50-50 chance of having the gene and if he has two daughters, their chances of having the disease is also 50-50. Usually this disease strikes when one is in his or her 110's. The genetic test only tells whether a persons has the gene that causes the disease, but it doesn't tell whether that person gets the disease in his UO ' s or in his late 60's. No treatment exists to prevent kidney failure in polycystic kidney patients.
There is a certain amount of unwillingness on the part of humans to know their future. However there are individuals who have taken the tests for the occurrence of Huntington's disease which is a neurological disease, a progressive and untreatable brain and muscle degeneration with symptoms that usually show themselves in the 40's. The chances of inheriting this disease
causing gene is also 50-50. Those who took the test and whose results were positive, there were no instances of suicide and only one of severe depression, and one marital breakup among the 71 patients screened.
Nancy Wexler of the Hereditary Disease Foundation says "If the information is limiting, enervating, depressing, if it tears at your self-esteem, if it gives you nothing to do, it might be better not to know." She devoted her professional life to the search for the gene for Huntington's disease which killed her mother and for which she and her sister are at risk.
Scientists stress that the results of genetic testing are ambiguous: genes alone do not determine a disease's prognosis. One can say whether or not an individual appears to have the gene, and those who have the gene have gone on to develop the disease. But one cannot say anything about when the disease will start, what will be the course of the disease, and what will be the relevant aspects of the illness.
The danger comes when imprecise tests are used inorder to predict the future, and when institutions actually use them to construct the future: when employers refuse to hire or train individuals at high risk of dying in their prime; when health-insurance companies insist on knowing the genetic profiles of their potential subscribers before paying for pre-existing genetic conditions; when schools require a permanent genetic record to anticipate which children will exhibit behavioral problems or learning disabilities. In United States genetic discrimination already exists. The risk of increasing the number of people defined as unemployable, uneducable or uninsurable exists. Genetic tests can identify employees who are susceptible to workplace toxins and companies may prohibit hiring such employees because they may contract occupational illnesses. 17 companies out of 500 had used genetic tests within the last 12 years, and 59 were considering the possibility. There is the danger of using the genetic tests for purposes of "eugenics." Eugenics means the deliberate manipulation of the gene pool with the idea of creating a master race. Defective people walking around may not be allowed to reproduce for the betterment of society.
Many of the conditions that will be uncovered through genetic studies are not life threatening, but might not fit into some societal scheme: genetic dyslexia, for example; genetic shyness; genetic arrogance; genetic left-handedness.
It is known that left-handed people have shorter life expectancies, which is relevant to insurance companies. But left-handed people may suffer for lack of knowledge whether left-handedness occurs for reasons other than genetic. They may be construed from birth as brain-damaged.
Allah is all knowing.
Human Cloning
On February 22, 1997, Dr. Ian Wilmut, the 52-year old embryologist astonished the world by announcing that he had created the first animal cloned from an adult-a lamb named Dolly. By scrapping a few cells from the udder of a 6-year-old ewe, then fusing them into a specially altered egg cell from another sheep, Dr. Wilmut and his colleagues at the Roslin Institute in Midlothian which is seven miles from Edinburgh, Scotland, have suddenly nudged open one of the most forbidden- and fascinating-doors of modern life. People have been plagued with the possibility of building humans for centuries, much before Mary Shelley wrote "Frankenstein" in 1818. Researchers never believed that it was possible to create an identical genetic copy of an adult animal. Dr. Wilmut "does not have a belief in God."
On March 14, 1997, President Clinton declared "the creation of life is a miracle that reaches beyond laboratory science" and he barred spending federal money on human cloning. He also urged a halt in private research until the ethical impact is better understood. Clinton asked the National Bioethics Advisory Commission a week before his announcement to review the ramifications cloning would have for humans and report back to him in 90 days. He imposed the restrictions of federal funds after learning that researchers in Oregon had cloned two rhesus monkeys- (the world's first cloned primates and the closest step yet to humans)_ from very early embryo cells-that is not the same as cloning the more sophisticated cells of an adult animal, or even a developing fetus. "Human cloning would have to raise deep concerns, given our most cherished concepts of faith and humanity," Clinton said. "Each human life is unique, born of a miracle that reaches beyond laboratory science. I believe we must respect this profound gift and resist the temptation to replicate ourselves. Science often moves faster than our ability to understand its implications. Any discovery that touches upon human creation is not simply a matter of scientific inquiry. It is a matter of morality and spirituality as well."
Clinton asked private research workers-who are not covered by his directive-to voluntarily keep off at least until the National Bioethics Advisory Commission can study the matter. Others were afraid that a permanent ban could thwart vital research on how genes are turned on and off inside human cells, a key factor in finding a cure for cancer or some birth defects or unlock the secrets to diseases. Clinton, too, noted the difference cloning could make in agriculture, medical treatments or "helping to unlock the greatest secrets of the genetic code." But he did not want scientific progress to move so fast that new developments are not handled responsibly and that without ethical implications people will try to play God.
History
1938: Cloning conceived
The idea of cloning had enticed scientists since 1938. When no one knew what genetic material was or consisted of, the first modern embryologist, Dr. Hans Spemann of Germany proposed what he called a "fantastical experiment" : taking the nucleus out of an egg cell and replacing it with a nucleus from another cell. In short, he suggested that scientists try to clone.
1952: First cloning experiment with frogs
The size of the eggs in the frogs are enormous compared with those of mammals, making them far easier to manipulate. Robert Briggs and T.J. King used a pipette to suck the nucleus from the cell of an advanced frog embryo and added it to a frog egg. It did not develop.
1970: Another experiment yields better results
John Gurdon who is now a faculty member at Cambridge University successfully cloned the frogs. Even though the frogs never reached adulthood (the eggs developed into tadpoles but died after they were ready to begin feeding), the technique was a landmark. He replaced the nucleus of a frog egg, one large cell, with that of another cell from another frog. He later showed that transplanted nuclei reverted to an embryonic state.
1981: Cloning of mice
Dr.Karl Illmense of the University of Geneva and Dr. Peter Hoppe of the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, claimed that they had transplanted the nuclei of mouse embryo cells into mouse eggs and produced three live mice that were clones of the embryos. Their mice were on the cover of the prestigious journal Science, and their research generated a lot of excitement. After a lengthy inquiry, it was discovered that Dr. Illmensee had faked his results.
1982: Research delayed
Dr. James McGrath and Dr. Davor Solter, working at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, reported in Science journal that they could not repeat the mouse-cloning experiment and concluded that once mouse embryos have reached the two-cell stage they cannot be used for cloning. Other investigators confirmed their findings.
1984: First embryo cloning of sheep
Steen Willadsen reported that he cloned a live lamb from immature sheep embryo cells. Others later reproduced his experiment using a variety of animals, including cattle, pigs, goats, rabbits, and rhesus monkeys.
1994: Cloning of more advanced embryo cells
Dr. Neal First of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, who has been Dr.Ian Wilmut's most constant competitor, cloned calves from embryos that have grown to at least 120 cells.
1996: Foundation laid for cloning of adult sheep
Dr. Ian Wilmut of Roslin Institute, Roslin, Midlothian in Scotland, United Kingdom repeated Dr. Neal First's experiment with sheep, however he put embryo cells into a resting state before transferring their nuclei to sheep eggs. The eggs developed into normal embryos and then into lambs.
1997: World's first adult sheep are cloned
Ian Wilmut, A.E. Schnieke, J. McWhir, A.J. Kind and K.H.S. Campbell reported that they had cloned a 6-year-old adult sheep from an udder (mammary) cell in the world's most prestigious scientific journal, Nature of 27 February 1997(Vol.385, pp.810-813).
TECHNIQUE OF CLONING:
The source of DNA (cell nucleus). A mammary cell is removed from the udder of a 6-year-old sheep (ewe) and cultured in a solution that starves it of nutrients to stop its development. Cells are constantly copying their own DNA and dividing. Researchers had to stop the donor cell from replicating its DNA.
A donor sheep is injected with hormones to release eggs (source of host egg cell). The unfertilized egg's nucleus, and thus its DNA, is removed, eliminating all genetic characteristics of the egg donor. What is in the nucleus? The nucleus contain the chromosomes (27 pairs in sheep and 23 pairs in humans) consisting of proteins and DNA, the genetic material that makes each individual unique.
The Cell and Egg are Fused and Activated
The cell (mammary) which is the source of DNA is inserted inside the covering around the egg cell (of donor sheep).
An electrical charge is applied to the two cells causing their pores to open, and the contents of the mammary cell to ooze into the egg. The electrical charge also tricks the egg into believing that it has been fertilized so it starts to divide. Of the 277 cells that were fused only 30 began to develop. It begins to develop like a normal embryo. The cell begins to divide over and over again. Each cell is identical to the original. When the embryo reaches, or is about to reach, the blastocyst stage, and the cells form a hollow ball (blastocyst) before they begin to differentiate or specialize.
After 6 days, the tiny embryos (29 of them) are implanted into the surrogate mother sheep (more that one embryo was implanted into a single sheep). Using ultrasound scans the surrogate sheep were monitored to confirm the pregnancy and monitor the development of the fetus once a month in the beginning and every two weeks later on. Out of 29 implanted, only one sheep gave birth to a lamb, which is genetically identical to the cell-donor (6-year-old ewe). This was named Dolly in honor of country singer Dolly Parton, whose mammary cells, Dr. Wilmut said, are equally famous. Dolly was born on July 5, 1996 at 4 P.M. It was a normal birth, head and forelegs first. She weighed 6.6 kilograms or about 14.5 pounds, and she was healthy.
Cloning of Humans:
After this exciting news many people all over the world believed that the cloning of humans is coming. The ethical, moral and theological frameworks of our society will be drastically affected, challenged and, at times, perhaps even devalued. We need to shape the policies and politics that will govern this remarkable technology.
People who favor the cloning of humans argue that the knowledge of nuclear physics lead to the creation of the atomic and hydrogen bombs and at the same time the application of radiation and radionuclides in industry, medicine, agriculture, animal husbandry, etc. brought enormous benefits to mankind. In the late 1980s the United States undertook the human genome project. Again moral and ethical implications were raised and subsided and the project is moving along. Baby Louise was born out of invitro fertilization. Did it destroy the humaneness? Artificial insemination was opposed in the beginning. Now the opposition has melted away.
The benefits to mankind of cloning and genetic engineering are immeasurable- the creation of farm animals engineered to produce a specific drugs. A good example is three Roslin scientists had just produced the first genetically engineered sheep that secrete a human pharmaceutical protein in its milk, a protein called alpha-1 antitrypsin, or ATT, which could be helpful in relieving the symptoms of cystic fibrosis. One can foresee animal clones that will be miniature drug factories, making drugs like the blood clotting factor for treating hemophilia that are now extraordinarily expensive. Another example is the production of "humanized organs". Scientists envision the cloning of animals whose organs are coated with human proteins so they can be used for transplants into patients, without rejection by the immune system. Alexion Pharmaceuticals, a New Haven-based Company and Nextran, a Princeton-based unit of Baxter Healthcare are developing transgenic pigs to serve as organ donors. It is postulated that using cells from organs, organs such as heart, arteries, liver can be grown. They also predict that cloning will lead to herds of prize livestock, like cows that produce enormous quantities of milk. Cloning technology could help control the protein thought to cause "mad cow disease" and its human analog, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
On March 14, 1997, President Clinton declared "the creation of life is a miracle that reaches beyond laboratory science" and he barred spending federal money on human cloning. He also urged a halt in private research until the ethical impact is better understood. Clinton asked the National Bioethics Advisory Commission a week before his announcement to review the ramifications cloning would have for humans and report back to him in 90 days. He imposed the restrictions of federal funds after learning that researchers in Oregon had cloned two rhesus monkeys- (the world's first cloned primates and the closest step yet to humans)_ from very early embryo cells-that is not the same as cloning the more sophisticated cells of an adult animal, or even a developing fetus. "Human cloning would have to raise deep concerns, given our most cherished concepts of faith and humanity," Clinton said. "Each human life is unique, born of a miracle that reaches beyond laboratory science. I believe we must respect this profound gift and resist the temptation to replicate ourselves. Science often moves faster than our ability to understand its implications. Any discovery that touches upon human creation is not simply a matter of scientific inquiry. It is a matter of morality and spirituality as well."
Clinton asked private research workers-who are not covered by his directive-to voluntarily keep off at least until the National Bioethics Advisory Commission can study the matter. Others were afraid that a permanent ban could thwart vital research on how genes are turned on and off inside human cells, a key factor in finding a cure for cancer or some birth defects or unlock the secrets to diseases. Clinton, too, noted the difference cloning could make in agriculture, medical treatments or "helping to unlock the greatest secrets of the genetic code." But he did not want scientific progress to move so fast that new developments are not handled responsibly and that without ethical implications people will try to play God.
History
1938: Cloning conceived
The idea of cloning had enticed scientists since 1938. When no one knew what genetic material was or consisted of, the first modern embryologist, Dr. Hans Spemann of Germany proposed what he called a "fantastical experiment" : taking the nucleus out of an egg cell and replacing it with a nucleus from another cell. In short, he suggested that scientists try to clone.
1952: First cloning experiment with frogs
The size of the eggs in the frogs are enormous compared with those of mammals, making them far easier to manipulate. Robert Briggs and T.J. King used a pipette to suck the nucleus from the cell of an advanced frog embryo and added it to a frog egg. It did not develop.
1970: Another experiment yields better results
John Gurdon who is now a faculty member at Cambridge University successfully cloned the frogs. Even though the frogs never reached adulthood (the eggs developed into tadpoles but died after they were ready to begin feeding), the technique was a landmark. He replaced the nucleus of a frog egg, one large cell, with that of another cell from another frog. He later showed that transplanted nuclei reverted to an embryonic state.
1981: Cloning of mice
Dr.Karl Illmense of the University of Geneva and Dr. Peter Hoppe of the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, claimed that they had transplanted the nuclei of mouse embryo cells into mouse eggs and produced three live mice that were clones of the embryos. Their mice were on the cover of the prestigious journal Science, and their research generated a lot of excitement. After a lengthy inquiry, it was discovered that Dr. Illmensee had faked his results.
1982: Research delayed
Dr. James McGrath and Dr. Davor Solter, working at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, reported in Science journal that they could not repeat the mouse-cloning experiment and concluded that once mouse embryos have reached the two-cell stage they cannot be used for cloning. Other investigators confirmed their findings.
1984: First embryo cloning of sheep
Steen Willadsen reported that he cloned a live lamb from immature sheep embryo cells. Others later reproduced his experiment using a variety of animals, including cattle, pigs, goats, rabbits, and rhesus monkeys.
1994: Cloning of more advanced embryo cells
Dr. Neal First of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, who has been Dr.Ian Wilmut's most constant competitor, cloned calves from embryos that have grown to at least 120 cells.
1996: Foundation laid for cloning of adult sheep
Dr. Ian Wilmut of Roslin Institute, Roslin, Midlothian in Scotland, United Kingdom repeated Dr. Neal First's experiment with sheep, however he put embryo cells into a resting state before transferring their nuclei to sheep eggs. The eggs developed into normal embryos and then into lambs.
1997: World's first adult sheep are cloned
Ian Wilmut, A.E. Schnieke, J. McWhir, A.J. Kind and K.H.S. Campbell reported that they had cloned a 6-year-old adult sheep from an udder (mammary) cell in the world's most prestigious scientific journal, Nature of 27 February 1997(Vol.385, pp.810-813).
TECHNIQUE OF CLONING:
The source of DNA (cell nucleus). A mammary cell is removed from the udder of a 6-year-old sheep (ewe) and cultured in a solution that starves it of nutrients to stop its development. Cells are constantly copying their own DNA and dividing. Researchers had to stop the donor cell from replicating its DNA.
A donor sheep is injected with hormones to release eggs (source of host egg cell). The unfertilized egg's nucleus, and thus its DNA, is removed, eliminating all genetic characteristics of the egg donor. What is in the nucleus? The nucleus contain the chromosomes (27 pairs in sheep and 23 pairs in humans) consisting of proteins and DNA, the genetic material that makes each individual unique.
The Cell and Egg are Fused and Activated
The cell (mammary) which is the source of DNA is inserted inside the covering around the egg cell (of donor sheep).
An electrical charge is applied to the two cells causing their pores to open, and the contents of the mammary cell to ooze into the egg. The electrical charge also tricks the egg into believing that it has been fertilized so it starts to divide. Of the 277 cells that were fused only 30 began to develop. It begins to develop like a normal embryo. The cell begins to divide over and over again. Each cell is identical to the original. When the embryo reaches, or is about to reach, the blastocyst stage, and the cells form a hollow ball (blastocyst) before they begin to differentiate or specialize.
After 6 days, the tiny embryos (29 of them) are implanted into the surrogate mother sheep (more that one embryo was implanted into a single sheep). Using ultrasound scans the surrogate sheep were monitored to confirm the pregnancy and monitor the development of the fetus once a month in the beginning and every two weeks later on. Out of 29 implanted, only one sheep gave birth to a lamb, which is genetically identical to the cell-donor (6-year-old ewe). This was named Dolly in honor of country singer Dolly Parton, whose mammary cells, Dr. Wilmut said, are equally famous. Dolly was born on July 5, 1996 at 4 P.M. It was a normal birth, head and forelegs first. She weighed 6.6 kilograms or about 14.5 pounds, and she was healthy.
Cloning of Humans:
After this exciting news many people all over the world believed that the cloning of humans is coming. The ethical, moral and theological frameworks of our society will be drastically affected, challenged and, at times, perhaps even devalued. We need to shape the policies and politics that will govern this remarkable technology.
People who favor the cloning of humans argue that the knowledge of nuclear physics lead to the creation of the atomic and hydrogen bombs and at the same time the application of radiation and radionuclides in industry, medicine, agriculture, animal husbandry, etc. brought enormous benefits to mankind. In the late 1980s the United States undertook the human genome project. Again moral and ethical implications were raised and subsided and the project is moving along. Baby Louise was born out of invitro fertilization. Did it destroy the humaneness? Artificial insemination was opposed in the beginning. Now the opposition has melted away.
The benefits to mankind of cloning and genetic engineering are immeasurable- the creation of farm animals engineered to produce a specific drugs. A good example is three Roslin scientists had just produced the first genetically engineered sheep that secrete a human pharmaceutical protein in its milk, a protein called alpha-1 antitrypsin, or ATT, which could be helpful in relieving the symptoms of cystic fibrosis. One can foresee animal clones that will be miniature drug factories, making drugs like the blood clotting factor for treating hemophilia that are now extraordinarily expensive. Another example is the production of "humanized organs". Scientists envision the cloning of animals whose organs are coated with human proteins so they can be used for transplants into patients, without rejection by the immune system. Alexion Pharmaceuticals, a New Haven-based Company and Nextran, a Princeton-based unit of Baxter Healthcare are developing transgenic pigs to serve as organ donors. It is postulated that using cells from organs, organs such as heart, arteries, liver can be grown. They also predict that cloning will lead to herds of prize livestock, like cows that produce enormous quantities of milk. Cloning technology could help control the protein thought to cause "mad cow disease" and its human analog, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
The Human Genome Project
"We shall show them Our portents on the horizons
And within themselves until it will be
Manifest unto them that it is the Truth.
Does not your Lord suffice,
Since He is Witness over all things?"
Al-Qur'an, Surah Fusilat, 41: 53
"We have caught a glimpse of
an instruction book (of life)
previously known to God."
--Dr. Frances Collins,
Director of the National Human
Genome Research Institute,
National Institutes of Health,
Bethesda, Maryland.
In June 2000, the US-based National Institute of Health (NIH) and Celera Genomics Corp., a biotech company, announced that they had deciphered about 90 percent of the human genome.
This decade old Human Genome (book of life) Project is trying to decode our genes and in this process it is churning out 12,000 letters of genetic code every minute of every day, creating a list that will total more than three billion when finally completed. Amazingly, more than 1,100 biologists, computer scientists and analysts at university laboratories in six different countries have been hard at work trying to complete what some are calling biology's version of the book of life. This project is like putting a man on the moon.
The Genome
What is the genome, and what does it mean to the human beings?
Children are taught in elementary schools that everything is made up of atoms. Atoms combine to make molecules. For example two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen combine to form one molecule of water. How do atoms and molecules work together to create the unique human being. All biological life is made up of an astonishingly complex blend of molecules. They combine, break down and recombine into the same or a myriad of other forms of molecules. Every day trillions of actions and reactions of molecules occur every second in processes that provide energy, food and cell maintenance for our bodies. What type of instructions and communications tell these atoms and molecules what to do? The Human Genome Project aims to solve that mystery in a breathtaking detail that even the scientific world is awestruck.
The molecular structures in the nucleus of a cell (the primary unit of the body) called chromosomes are at the fundamental level of the beginning of life. The chromosomes contain the genetic document- a chemical instruction set written in chemical code-that tell the human body how to arrange, structure, absorb and expel atoms and molecules. The totality of the genetic instructions is the human genome. Each individual has a unique genome, a specific chemical genetic instruction set. In reality, each human being is a genome.
Every individual receives one's genome at conception. A male sperm with its 23 chromosomes paired with a woman's 23 chromosomes in a fertilized egg, creates a totally new human being. Every individual starts life as a single cell. From that one cell a human being is made. Every growth pattern, stage and process of a human body occurs like clockwork-from fetal development to birth, infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood. For the first 18 years in life, on average one adds 100 million cells to the body every minute.
Such precipitous growth is so perfectly programmed from your own set of instructions contained in that first cell that by age 20, one becomes an adult of more than 100 trillion (100,000,000,000,000) cells-differentiated into heart, liver, spleen, bone, skin, muscle, stomach, intestines, eyes and most important of all the brain. Scientists have estimated that 40 percent of the genome is devoted to the development of the brain alone.
Design of Genetic Material
When scientists look into the design of the human cell they are wonderstruck to find it to be brilliant and its performance stunning. After 50 years the most marvelous biological mystery has been solved and that is how genes drive all the development of the body's cells at the molecular level. To reach this understanding they learned how the functions of the tiniest cellular structure for feeding, repairing, eliminating waste, dividing and even dying. With advances in technology, the glory of the structure of chromosomes was revealed.
The key to understanding of the genes is the DNA, acronym for deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA is found in each cell's nucleus (hence it a nucleic acid), the command center of the cell. DNA is also an instructional blueprint for every one of the 100 trillion cells that make up all body tissue. DNA directs each component of the cell in trillions of cellular processes that take place in the human body every second until death.
DNA structurally resembles ladderlike formation of two strands with rungs creating a double-helix shape. The ladder forms continuos; giant molecule called the chromosome. Water has two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen and written as H2O, with a molecular weight of 18. The DNA chromosome molecule has a molecular weight of about 80 billion. DNA chromosome is a thin thread coiled in the cell's tiny nucleus and has a diameter of 2 nanometers. When stretched to full length it would be about one and a quarter inch long. The two DNA's strands appear like stilts made of an alternating phosphate and sugar. The steplike rungs between the strands are made up of paired bases of nitrogen compounds identified by the letters G, C, A and T (the first letters of the four kinds of bases: guanine, cytosine, adenine and thymine). These are the only substances in DNA; hence the genome consists of only these four-but in seemingly endless sequences. These compounds direct every cell in the human body what to do. Special bands of these compounds are our genes.
Genes
Genes are paired on each chromosome with sequences that account for specific traits and physical and physical characteristics. Each body trait requires one or more pairs of genes. For example the color of eyes, shape of body parts and susceptibility to diseases all are found within the gene pairs of the genome. There are between 80,000 to 100,000 genes in the human genome. Scientists do not know where all the genes are, or even how many genes there are. The goal of the Human Genome Project is to decode everyone.
The universe is estimated to contain 100 billion galaxies with an estimated 200 billion stars each, and now scientists are realizing that each human body appears as complex and amazingly designed as the universe itself. For example the human brain has 100 billion neurons, with untold trillions of connections and patterns of endless wiring sequences. We are unaware of what goes on in our cells as our genome tells our cells to assemble amino acids into proteins to make cell walls, and cell walls to split and divide and human beings are unaware of the constant stream of virtual miracles that keep human beings alive, alert and functioning.
Solving the puzzle
How did such an astonishingly complex process begin? How did the billions of atoms in each DNA molecule arrange themselves perfectly for the self-perpetuation or what we call life? How did cells, DNA and chromosomes come about? Some argue that the greatest scientific proof that human beings were designed by a higher Power is this: The process of one genome creating a living, self-perpetuating organism cannot happen over time. It has to be right the first time, and it must entail literally billions of designed elements that must be in place and functioning perfectly, or else the cell cannot exist and reproduce. The self-replicating cell exists only because its inherent intelligent systems- each involving billions of functions- interact perfectly. Otherwise it is dead. The chromosomes and cells are extremely complex and beyond imagination that some scholars argue that they could never have evolved through random processes from nothing, even if given the endless time spans evolutionists require for their theory. Evolutionists are unable to explain, for example, how and why heart tissue, liver tissue, skin and blood are distinctly different and have dramatically different functions. However, surprisingly, each cell contains the same DNA. Therefore a liver cell's DNA is identical to a brain cell's DNA. Still the mystery is how each cell knows its identity, function and position in the body.
Benefits of the Human Genome Project
Through decoding the human genome scientists hope, among other things, to discover the causes for many diseases, develop new treatments and cures and slow or reverse the aging process. Already researchers on the Human Genome Project have identified genetic disorders responsible for cystic fibrosis and some types of cervical, stomach and testicular cancer, among other diseases.
A startling number of little changes that make one person different from another--known as single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs -- have been identified. Until September 2000 more than 800,000 SNPs have been identified. Of the 800,000 now found, 300,000 were identified by the private-public SNP Consortium, which has accelerated its program The Consortium's members include Britain's Wellcome Trust, AstraZeneca PLC, Aventis Pharma, Bayer AG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Hoffman-La Roche, Glaxo Wellcome Plc, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer Inc., Searle (now part of Pharmacia), and SmithKline Beecham Plac and Motorola Inc., IBM, and Amersham Pharmacia Biotech. Other members include the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri; the Wellcome Trust's Sanger Center, Stanford University's Human Genome Center, and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, New York.
The Human Genome Project also has its own moral and ethical issues. Parents will be motivated to abort unborn fetuses with abnormal genetic profiles. There will be an increasing trend toward creating "designer babies" by customizing personal genetic traits such as looks, abilities, height, intelligence and hair and eye color. Genetic discrimination is a real possibility. Companies screen potential employees and deny jobs or insurance to those with genetic predisposition to some diseases. Finally, children could be sorted into social classes or career tracks based on career potential.
And within themselves until it will be
Manifest unto them that it is the Truth.
Does not your Lord suffice,
Since He is Witness over all things?"
Al-Qur'an, Surah Fusilat, 41: 53
"We have caught a glimpse of
an instruction book (of life)
previously known to God."
--Dr. Frances Collins,
Director of the National Human
Genome Research Institute,
National Institutes of Health,
Bethesda, Maryland.
In June 2000, the US-based National Institute of Health (NIH) and Celera Genomics Corp., a biotech company, announced that they had deciphered about 90 percent of the human genome.
This decade old Human Genome (book of life) Project is trying to decode our genes and in this process it is churning out 12,000 letters of genetic code every minute of every day, creating a list that will total more than three billion when finally completed. Amazingly, more than 1,100 biologists, computer scientists and analysts at university laboratories in six different countries have been hard at work trying to complete what some are calling biology's version of the book of life. This project is like putting a man on the moon.
The Genome
What is the genome, and what does it mean to the human beings?
Children are taught in elementary schools that everything is made up of atoms. Atoms combine to make molecules. For example two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen combine to form one molecule of water. How do atoms and molecules work together to create the unique human being. All biological life is made up of an astonishingly complex blend of molecules. They combine, break down and recombine into the same or a myriad of other forms of molecules. Every day trillions of actions and reactions of molecules occur every second in processes that provide energy, food and cell maintenance for our bodies. What type of instructions and communications tell these atoms and molecules what to do? The Human Genome Project aims to solve that mystery in a breathtaking detail that even the scientific world is awestruck.
The molecular structures in the nucleus of a cell (the primary unit of the body) called chromosomes are at the fundamental level of the beginning of life. The chromosomes contain the genetic document- a chemical instruction set written in chemical code-that tell the human body how to arrange, structure, absorb and expel atoms and molecules. The totality of the genetic instructions is the human genome. Each individual has a unique genome, a specific chemical genetic instruction set. In reality, each human being is a genome.
Every individual receives one's genome at conception. A male sperm with its 23 chromosomes paired with a woman's 23 chromosomes in a fertilized egg, creates a totally new human being. Every individual starts life as a single cell. From that one cell a human being is made. Every growth pattern, stage and process of a human body occurs like clockwork-from fetal development to birth, infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood. For the first 18 years in life, on average one adds 100 million cells to the body every minute.
Such precipitous growth is so perfectly programmed from your own set of instructions contained in that first cell that by age 20, one becomes an adult of more than 100 trillion (100,000,000,000,000) cells-differentiated into heart, liver, spleen, bone, skin, muscle, stomach, intestines, eyes and most important of all the brain. Scientists have estimated that 40 percent of the genome is devoted to the development of the brain alone.
Design of Genetic Material
When scientists look into the design of the human cell they are wonderstruck to find it to be brilliant and its performance stunning. After 50 years the most marvelous biological mystery has been solved and that is how genes drive all the development of the body's cells at the molecular level. To reach this understanding they learned how the functions of the tiniest cellular structure for feeding, repairing, eliminating waste, dividing and even dying. With advances in technology, the glory of the structure of chromosomes was revealed.
The key to understanding of the genes is the DNA, acronym for deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA is found in each cell's nucleus (hence it a nucleic acid), the command center of the cell. DNA is also an instructional blueprint for every one of the 100 trillion cells that make up all body tissue. DNA directs each component of the cell in trillions of cellular processes that take place in the human body every second until death.
DNA structurally resembles ladderlike formation of two strands with rungs creating a double-helix shape. The ladder forms continuos; giant molecule called the chromosome. Water has two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen and written as H2O, with a molecular weight of 18. The DNA chromosome molecule has a molecular weight of about 80 billion. DNA chromosome is a thin thread coiled in the cell's tiny nucleus and has a diameter of 2 nanometers. When stretched to full length it would be about one and a quarter inch long. The two DNA's strands appear like stilts made of an alternating phosphate and sugar. The steplike rungs between the strands are made up of paired bases of nitrogen compounds identified by the letters G, C, A and T (the first letters of the four kinds of bases: guanine, cytosine, adenine and thymine). These are the only substances in DNA; hence the genome consists of only these four-but in seemingly endless sequences. These compounds direct every cell in the human body what to do. Special bands of these compounds are our genes.
Genes
Genes are paired on each chromosome with sequences that account for specific traits and physical and physical characteristics. Each body trait requires one or more pairs of genes. For example the color of eyes, shape of body parts and susceptibility to diseases all are found within the gene pairs of the genome. There are between 80,000 to 100,000 genes in the human genome. Scientists do not know where all the genes are, or even how many genes there are. The goal of the Human Genome Project is to decode everyone.
The universe is estimated to contain 100 billion galaxies with an estimated 200 billion stars each, and now scientists are realizing that each human body appears as complex and amazingly designed as the universe itself. For example the human brain has 100 billion neurons, with untold trillions of connections and patterns of endless wiring sequences. We are unaware of what goes on in our cells as our genome tells our cells to assemble amino acids into proteins to make cell walls, and cell walls to split and divide and human beings are unaware of the constant stream of virtual miracles that keep human beings alive, alert and functioning.
Solving the puzzle
How did such an astonishingly complex process begin? How did the billions of atoms in each DNA molecule arrange themselves perfectly for the self-perpetuation or what we call life? How did cells, DNA and chromosomes come about? Some argue that the greatest scientific proof that human beings were designed by a higher Power is this: The process of one genome creating a living, self-perpetuating organism cannot happen over time. It has to be right the first time, and it must entail literally billions of designed elements that must be in place and functioning perfectly, or else the cell cannot exist and reproduce. The self-replicating cell exists only because its inherent intelligent systems- each involving billions of functions- interact perfectly. Otherwise it is dead. The chromosomes and cells are extremely complex and beyond imagination that some scholars argue that they could never have evolved through random processes from nothing, even if given the endless time spans evolutionists require for their theory. Evolutionists are unable to explain, for example, how and why heart tissue, liver tissue, skin and blood are distinctly different and have dramatically different functions. However, surprisingly, each cell contains the same DNA. Therefore a liver cell's DNA is identical to a brain cell's DNA. Still the mystery is how each cell knows its identity, function and position in the body.
Benefits of the Human Genome Project
Through decoding the human genome scientists hope, among other things, to discover the causes for many diseases, develop new treatments and cures and slow or reverse the aging process. Already researchers on the Human Genome Project have identified genetic disorders responsible for cystic fibrosis and some types of cervical, stomach and testicular cancer, among other diseases.
A startling number of little changes that make one person different from another--known as single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs -- have been identified. Until September 2000 more than 800,000 SNPs have been identified. Of the 800,000 now found, 300,000 were identified by the private-public SNP Consortium, which has accelerated its program The Consortium's members include Britain's Wellcome Trust, AstraZeneca PLC, Aventis Pharma, Bayer AG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Hoffman-La Roche, Glaxo Wellcome Plc, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer Inc., Searle (now part of Pharmacia), and SmithKline Beecham Plac and Motorola Inc., IBM, and Amersham Pharmacia Biotech. Other members include the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri; the Wellcome Trust's Sanger Center, Stanford University's Human Genome Center, and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, New York.
The Human Genome Project also has its own moral and ethical issues. Parents will be motivated to abort unborn fetuses with abnormal genetic profiles. There will be an increasing trend toward creating "designer babies" by customizing personal genetic traits such as looks, abilities, height, intelligence and hair and eye color. Genetic discrimination is a real possibility. Companies screen potential employees and deny jobs or insurance to those with genetic predisposition to some diseases. Finally, children could be sorted into social classes or career tracks based on career potential.
BENEFITS OF OBESITY
"…It may happen that you dislike a thing which is good for you,
and it may be that you love a thing which is bad for you.
Allah knows, while you know not." Qur'an [Surah Baqara 2:216]
In America an obese (a fatty) person, in some cases is frowned upon. Majority of Americans dislike the human fat, which is scorned and despised and ruthlessly vacuumed from bellies and backsides by suction-assisted lipectomy (i.e., liposuction) may have a redeeming feature after all. This much-accused tissue appears to be a rich source of stem cells, prized by scientists for their seemingly magical power to turn into a variety of tissue types. These tissues can be replacements for almost any part of the human body without the problems of rejection. Rejection is a colossal problem currently in human organ transplants.
What are Stem Cells?
Stem cells are living cells that can develop into many different types of tissue, such as bone, muscle or brain. There are three basic types: (1) "Totipotent" stem cells These cells are formed when a fertilized egg first divides- can turn into any type of tissue and form a "total" organism. After five days after fertilization, a hollow ball of about 100 cells called a blastocyst forms. The cells on the outside develop into the placenta, while those on the inside turn into the embryo itself. (2) The 50 or so inner cells are "pluripotent" - they can turn into almost all types of tissue, but not a whole organism. As the embryo develops further, stem cells become (3) "multipotent" - they can give rise only to specific kinds of cells. Totipotent and pluripotent cells are also known as adult stem cells.
What kind is useful?
If they had their way most physicians would go for pluripotent stem cells because these can give all the types of tissues one needs, but cannot turn into a whole human being.
From where to get them?
At present the only place to get them is from human embryos, which is the one reason why pro-life groups are so opposed to stem cell research. Three research groups around the world have found ways to grow potentially limitless supplies of pluripotent cells in the lab - but these did come from embryos in the first place. If a patient were given organs grown from somebody else's cells, the patient has to take immunosuppressant drugs for the rest of his or her life.
Obtaining stem cells-primitive cells with the potential to become virtually any type of tissue-from adipose tissue or fat collected by liposuction - a cosmetic procedure - and converted them into becoming muscle, bone or cartilage, depending on the conditions in which they were grown, scientists, reported in the journal Tissue Engineering (Volume 7, Number 2: 211-218, April 2001). This article titled "Multilineage cells from human adipose tissue: implications for cell-based therapies, was authored by Zuk PA, Zhu M, Mizuno H, Huang J, Futrell JW, Katz AJ, Benhaim P, Lorenz HP, Hedrick MH of the Laboratory for Regenerative Bioengineering and Repair, Department of Surgery and Orthopaedic Surgery, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California. Tissue Engineering is the application of the principles of life sciences and engineering to develop biological substitutes for the restoration or replacement of tissue or organ function.
Stem Cells are undifferentiated cells in an embryo or adult which can undergo unlimited division and give rise to one or several different cell types. In adults an undifferentiated cell from which some renewable tissues (blood, skin, etc. ) are formed.
Human adipose tissue (fat) obtained by suction-assisted lipectomy (i.e. liposuction) was processed to obtain a fibroblast-like population of cells or a processed lipoaspirate (PLA). These PLA cells can be maintained in vitro (outside the body) for extended periods with stable population doubling and low levels of senescence. Immunofluorescence and flow cytometry show that the majority of PLA cells are mesodermal or mesenchymal origin with low levels of contaminating pericytes, endothelial cells, and smooth muscle cells. Finally, PLA cells differentiate in vitro into adipogenic (fat), chondrogenic (cartilage), myogenic (muscle), and osteogenic (bone) cells in the presence of lineage-specific induction factors. This pioneering study concludes that the data support the hypothesis that a human lipoaspirate contains multipotent cells and may represent an alternative stem cells source to bone marrow-derived MSCs (mesenchymal stem cells).
The discovery means that a person's own fat might one day be used to provide the tissue needed to treat disease or repair injured or worn-out parts. From cartilage implants in damaged knees to brain implants for Parkinson's disease and strokes. Theoretically, people might be able to get rid of their love handles while supplying the material needed to fix a creaky knee or hip. Unlike a transplant, tissue created by a person's owns stem cells would pose no risk of rejection or exposure to viruses from a donor.
"Fat may be a practical source of cells from which to make new tissues," said Dr. Marc H. Hedrick, the lead author and an assistant professor of surgery and pediatrics at the university of California at Los Angeles and the director of the study, in which researchers from the University of Pittsburgh collaborated. "We don't yet know the limits for stem cells found in fat," said Dr. Adam J. Katz of the University of Pittsburgh, a co-author. " So far, we have seen promising results with all of the tissue types we have examined." The Bush administration is contemplating to ban the use of embryonic stem cells from aborted tissues, and hence this new discovery offers an alternative source that could be much more abundant and much less contentious. "This could take the air right out of the debate about embryonic stem cells," said Dr. Hedrick. The newly identified cells have so many different potential applications, he added, that "it makes it hard to argue that we should use embryonic cells." "This changes the way we think about fat tissue," Dr. Hedrick said. "It's not a static spare tire around our waist. It 's really a dynamic tissue, and there are a lot of things in it that could help us fix people with diseases." (NY Times April 10, 2001).
"This is extremely significant in terms of its potential," said Dr. Michael T. Longaker of Stanford University. "Unfortunately, fat is a substantial natural resource in the USA. This is a great way to do something with it." (The Courier-Journal, Louisville, KY April 10, 2001)
During the 1990s, researchers have found that adults also have stem cells in a variety of locations, ranging from bone marrow, to the brain. Since they are present in small numbers and recovering them could be difficult and painful. Small amounts of stem cells can be extracted from bone marrow, but removing marrow from a patient can be painful. For example to extract stem cells from the bone marrow requires drilling a tiny hole directly in the bone, which remains painful for weeks after the procedure. Furthermore the yield is small, usually about a few milliliters (ml). Stem cells for research has been collected from bone marrow, brain or fetal tissue. But the use of fetal tissue has provoked ethics disputes, and performing brain surgery to harvest stem cells is not practical.
On the other hand Liposuction is much easier to perform through an incision in the skin that about one inch long and is relatively painless. And liters of fat is harvested and tossed away-producing a thousand times as many stem cells as can be obtained from bone marrow. In older adults, the percentage of stem cells is even higher in fat cells than in bone marrow. Since each person serves as his or own fat donor, there would be no problem with rejection of implanted cells. Researchers looked for stem cells in fat because fat, marrow and bone in humans developed from the same layer of embryonic tissue, the mesoderm, and tissues from the same origin often had properties in common. So if bone marrow has stem cells, then it is logical to think that fat should have them too. The researchers saved fat from liposuction and processed it to isolate cells thought to include stem cells. To get things revved up, the cells have to be fed with the right stuff.
To coax the cells to make bone, for instance, the researchers used a medium containing calcium, phosphate and vitamin C. They varied the conditions to grow cartilage, muscle or more fat cells. Stem cells can be converted into specific tissues by exposing them to complex mixture of growth hormones and other chemicals, which requires a different formula for each desired tissue. The bottom line is finding what needs to be included in each formulation.
The study was the first to find stem cells in fat and use them to grow different tissues. Like any other study, other researchers to find out whether the conclusions hold up must repeat it. Another team at Duke University has produced similar results, turning stem cells from fat into cartilage. "It's very important for different groups to reach the same conclusion with a study with this much potential impact," said Dr. Farshid Guilak, leader of the Duke study. Both the Stanford and Duke groups are executing tissue examinations in animals, and both suggested that for the first clinical trials to be conducted in humans, it may take up to five years. Repairing of knees and other joints, as well as noses and ears by cartilage implants will be the initial utilization of this discovery. Laboratory grown Cartilage cells are being used in the reconstruction of damaged knees, but the use of stem cells would astoundingly increase the supply of tissue available. The organs and tissues that resist healing such as broken and impaired bones could be repaired. This item is also high on the agenda. The stem cells might be used for a much extensive diversity of applications, including brain implants for Parkinson's disease and strokes (brain attacks), and in the repair of heart tissues, are all possibilities in the future. Now, embryonic stem cells that secrete vital hormones are used to treat victims of Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases, for example.
In the adult human body most of the cells are somatic cells. These somatic cells are called differentiated cells and have adopted an indelible identity- skin, heart, muscle, whatever the case and they cannot be changed. Skin cells, for example, cannot be converted into bone, cartilage or brain tissue, or vice versa. But embryos have a large percentage of genetically unprogrammed or undifferentiated cells that have the potential to become any kind of cell in the body. All other cells stem from these undifferentiated cells, hence the name stem cells them. The stem cells are a premium for researchers and clinicians, but their use is highly disputed because the only way to obtain them is through a miscarriage.
Even if they do, using fat to provide tissue for patients is a long way off and a procedure for doing so is not clear. Scientists must determine, for instance, whether stem cells can be given to patients or whether the cells must be cultured in the laboratory to turn them into the desired tissue, then implanted where needed. Actual tests involving humans are likely five years away.
Eight years ago, President Clinton reversed a ban on federal funding for research on embryonic stem cells, but many observers believe that Bush administration officials will restore the ban. Performing research on fetuses obtained from abortion or miscarriages has become a political hotchpotch. Hence the scientific research community is taking the wrath of the anti-abortion groups. In the eighties President Ronald Reagan prohibited federal funding of research that utilized fetal tissue. They were transplanting more matured cells to treat Parkinson's disease and in the pancreas of diabetics. Our President Bush's father supported this ban when he was President (1988-1992). When Bill Clinton became the President he reversed the ban of his Republican predecessors. President Clinton's federally funded fetal tissue research is continuing. As mentioned above, researchers have already transplanted dopamine-producing cells from the fetal brain into patients suffering from Parkinson's disease. What will happen to the destiny of stem cell research using fetuses, under the present Bush administration is uncertain.
and it may be that you love a thing which is bad for you.
Allah knows, while you know not." Qur'an [Surah Baqara 2:216]
In America an obese (a fatty) person, in some cases is frowned upon. Majority of Americans dislike the human fat, which is scorned and despised and ruthlessly vacuumed from bellies and backsides by suction-assisted lipectomy (i.e., liposuction) may have a redeeming feature after all. This much-accused tissue appears to be a rich source of stem cells, prized by scientists for their seemingly magical power to turn into a variety of tissue types. These tissues can be replacements for almost any part of the human body without the problems of rejection. Rejection is a colossal problem currently in human organ transplants.
What are Stem Cells?
Stem cells are living cells that can develop into many different types of tissue, such as bone, muscle or brain. There are three basic types: (1) "Totipotent" stem cells These cells are formed when a fertilized egg first divides- can turn into any type of tissue and form a "total" organism. After five days after fertilization, a hollow ball of about 100 cells called a blastocyst forms. The cells on the outside develop into the placenta, while those on the inside turn into the embryo itself. (2) The 50 or so inner cells are "pluripotent" - they can turn into almost all types of tissue, but not a whole organism. As the embryo develops further, stem cells become (3) "multipotent" - they can give rise only to specific kinds of cells. Totipotent and pluripotent cells are also known as adult stem cells.
What kind is useful?
If they had their way most physicians would go for pluripotent stem cells because these can give all the types of tissues one needs, but cannot turn into a whole human being.
From where to get them?
At present the only place to get them is from human embryos, which is the one reason why pro-life groups are so opposed to stem cell research. Three research groups around the world have found ways to grow potentially limitless supplies of pluripotent cells in the lab - but these did come from embryos in the first place. If a patient were given organs grown from somebody else's cells, the patient has to take immunosuppressant drugs for the rest of his or her life.
Obtaining stem cells-primitive cells with the potential to become virtually any type of tissue-from adipose tissue or fat collected by liposuction - a cosmetic procedure - and converted them into becoming muscle, bone or cartilage, depending on the conditions in which they were grown, scientists, reported in the journal Tissue Engineering (Volume 7, Number 2: 211-218, April 2001). This article titled "Multilineage cells from human adipose tissue: implications for cell-based therapies, was authored by Zuk PA, Zhu M, Mizuno H, Huang J, Futrell JW, Katz AJ, Benhaim P, Lorenz HP, Hedrick MH of the Laboratory for Regenerative Bioengineering and Repair, Department of Surgery and Orthopaedic Surgery, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California. Tissue Engineering is the application of the principles of life sciences and engineering to develop biological substitutes for the restoration or replacement of tissue or organ function.
Stem Cells are undifferentiated cells in an embryo or adult which can undergo unlimited division and give rise to one or several different cell types. In adults an undifferentiated cell from which some renewable tissues (blood, skin, etc. ) are formed.
Human adipose tissue (fat) obtained by suction-assisted lipectomy (i.e. liposuction) was processed to obtain a fibroblast-like population of cells or a processed lipoaspirate (PLA). These PLA cells can be maintained in vitro (outside the body) for extended periods with stable population doubling and low levels of senescence. Immunofluorescence and flow cytometry show that the majority of PLA cells are mesodermal or mesenchymal origin with low levels of contaminating pericytes, endothelial cells, and smooth muscle cells. Finally, PLA cells differentiate in vitro into adipogenic (fat), chondrogenic (cartilage), myogenic (muscle), and osteogenic (bone) cells in the presence of lineage-specific induction factors. This pioneering study concludes that the data support the hypothesis that a human lipoaspirate contains multipotent cells and may represent an alternative stem cells source to bone marrow-derived MSCs (mesenchymal stem cells).
The discovery means that a person's own fat might one day be used to provide the tissue needed to treat disease or repair injured or worn-out parts. From cartilage implants in damaged knees to brain implants for Parkinson's disease and strokes. Theoretically, people might be able to get rid of their love handles while supplying the material needed to fix a creaky knee or hip. Unlike a transplant, tissue created by a person's owns stem cells would pose no risk of rejection or exposure to viruses from a donor.
"Fat may be a practical source of cells from which to make new tissues," said Dr. Marc H. Hedrick, the lead author and an assistant professor of surgery and pediatrics at the university of California at Los Angeles and the director of the study, in which researchers from the University of Pittsburgh collaborated. "We don't yet know the limits for stem cells found in fat," said Dr. Adam J. Katz of the University of Pittsburgh, a co-author. " So far, we have seen promising results with all of the tissue types we have examined." The Bush administration is contemplating to ban the use of embryonic stem cells from aborted tissues, and hence this new discovery offers an alternative source that could be much more abundant and much less contentious. "This could take the air right out of the debate about embryonic stem cells," said Dr. Hedrick. The newly identified cells have so many different potential applications, he added, that "it makes it hard to argue that we should use embryonic cells." "This changes the way we think about fat tissue," Dr. Hedrick said. "It's not a static spare tire around our waist. It 's really a dynamic tissue, and there are a lot of things in it that could help us fix people with diseases." (NY Times April 10, 2001).
"This is extremely significant in terms of its potential," said Dr. Michael T. Longaker of Stanford University. "Unfortunately, fat is a substantial natural resource in the USA. This is a great way to do something with it." (The Courier-Journal, Louisville, KY April 10, 2001)
During the 1990s, researchers have found that adults also have stem cells in a variety of locations, ranging from bone marrow, to the brain. Since they are present in small numbers and recovering them could be difficult and painful. Small amounts of stem cells can be extracted from bone marrow, but removing marrow from a patient can be painful. For example to extract stem cells from the bone marrow requires drilling a tiny hole directly in the bone, which remains painful for weeks after the procedure. Furthermore the yield is small, usually about a few milliliters (ml). Stem cells for research has been collected from bone marrow, brain or fetal tissue. But the use of fetal tissue has provoked ethics disputes, and performing brain surgery to harvest stem cells is not practical.
On the other hand Liposuction is much easier to perform through an incision in the skin that about one inch long and is relatively painless. And liters of fat is harvested and tossed away-producing a thousand times as many stem cells as can be obtained from bone marrow. In older adults, the percentage of stem cells is even higher in fat cells than in bone marrow. Since each person serves as his or own fat donor, there would be no problem with rejection of implanted cells. Researchers looked for stem cells in fat because fat, marrow and bone in humans developed from the same layer of embryonic tissue, the mesoderm, and tissues from the same origin often had properties in common. So if bone marrow has stem cells, then it is logical to think that fat should have them too. The researchers saved fat from liposuction and processed it to isolate cells thought to include stem cells. To get things revved up, the cells have to be fed with the right stuff.
To coax the cells to make bone, for instance, the researchers used a medium containing calcium, phosphate and vitamin C. They varied the conditions to grow cartilage, muscle or more fat cells. Stem cells can be converted into specific tissues by exposing them to complex mixture of growth hormones and other chemicals, which requires a different formula for each desired tissue. The bottom line is finding what needs to be included in each formulation.
The study was the first to find stem cells in fat and use them to grow different tissues. Like any other study, other researchers to find out whether the conclusions hold up must repeat it. Another team at Duke University has produced similar results, turning stem cells from fat into cartilage. "It's very important for different groups to reach the same conclusion with a study with this much potential impact," said Dr. Farshid Guilak, leader of the Duke study. Both the Stanford and Duke groups are executing tissue examinations in animals, and both suggested that for the first clinical trials to be conducted in humans, it may take up to five years. Repairing of knees and other joints, as well as noses and ears by cartilage implants will be the initial utilization of this discovery. Laboratory grown Cartilage cells are being used in the reconstruction of damaged knees, but the use of stem cells would astoundingly increase the supply of tissue available. The organs and tissues that resist healing such as broken and impaired bones could be repaired. This item is also high on the agenda. The stem cells might be used for a much extensive diversity of applications, including brain implants for Parkinson's disease and strokes (brain attacks), and in the repair of heart tissues, are all possibilities in the future. Now, embryonic stem cells that secrete vital hormones are used to treat victims of Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases, for example.
In the adult human body most of the cells are somatic cells. These somatic cells are called differentiated cells and have adopted an indelible identity- skin, heart, muscle, whatever the case and they cannot be changed. Skin cells, for example, cannot be converted into bone, cartilage or brain tissue, or vice versa. But embryos have a large percentage of genetically unprogrammed or undifferentiated cells that have the potential to become any kind of cell in the body. All other cells stem from these undifferentiated cells, hence the name stem cells them. The stem cells are a premium for researchers and clinicians, but their use is highly disputed because the only way to obtain them is through a miscarriage.
Even if they do, using fat to provide tissue for patients is a long way off and a procedure for doing so is not clear. Scientists must determine, for instance, whether stem cells can be given to patients or whether the cells must be cultured in the laboratory to turn them into the desired tissue, then implanted where needed. Actual tests involving humans are likely five years away.
Eight years ago, President Clinton reversed a ban on federal funding for research on embryonic stem cells, but many observers believe that Bush administration officials will restore the ban. Performing research on fetuses obtained from abortion or miscarriages has become a political hotchpotch. Hence the scientific research community is taking the wrath of the anti-abortion groups. In the eighties President Ronald Reagan prohibited federal funding of research that utilized fetal tissue. They were transplanting more matured cells to treat Parkinson's disease and in the pancreas of diabetics. Our President Bush's father supported this ban when he was President (1988-1992). When Bill Clinton became the President he reversed the ban of his Republican predecessors. President Clinton's federally funded fetal tissue research is continuing. As mentioned above, researchers have already transplanted dopamine-producing cells from the fetal brain into patients suffering from Parkinson's disease. What will happen to the destiny of stem cell research using fetuses, under the present Bush administration is uncertain.
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