I cloned Dolly the sheep to beat Parkinson’s... and now I have it
THE scientist who created Dolly the sheep to help fight Parkinson’s has been diagnosed with the disease. Sir Ian Wilmut, 73, admitted he is struggling to come to
terms with the condition but added he is “happy to act as a guinea pig and donate tissue or try new treatments”. The professor, of Edinburgh, unveiled Dolly in the city in 1996. She was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell. Her birth opened new ways for scientists to research diseases including Parkinson’s.
Key to Sir Ian’s work was the discovery of a type of stem cell that can be programmed to grow into any type of tissue in the body. He later became the founding director of the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Regenerative Medicine.
Stem cells are used there to develop therapies for Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis.