Magazine applauds USU research
USU had a moment in the scientific spotlight Aug. 24 with its second appearance in Popular Science magazine’s “30 Awesome College Labs.”
The Center for Integrated BioSystems lab, directed by Ken White, was chosen because of its work with cloning. According to the article, the center can “churn out up to 600 cloned embryos a week, primarily for genetics research.”
Since 1991, White has worked with USU, first teaching classes and now directing the Center for Development and Molecular Biology, where he has been since 1995. The lab later became the Center for Integrated BioSystems lab. In 2003, White was part of a group of scientists who cloned the world’s first hybrid animal.
White said he finds great pleasure in his work, and said it’s “amazing” to work with cells that could ultimately be a live animal. He said the lab’s cloning research usually gets the most recognition.
“There aren’t very many labs across country that have the ability or expertise to be able to do this,” he said.
White worked with Popular Science magazine when they originally featured the lab in 2008.
“It’s always fun to have a venue such as Popular Science highlight us,” he said. “It’s really very flattering, not only for the lab, but also for the university.”
The lab has a team of students, including undergraduate and graduate, as well as faculty advisers. White said the students’ resumes benefit greatly from the work in the lab, giving them an advantage over many of their peers.
“It provides them an opportunity to be a part of and work on research projects,” White said.
Ben Sessions, a doctorate student, has been involved with the lab since 2002, working with the cloning research. Sessions said the lab’s research brings “respect and notoriety” to the university.
Hoever, with cloning research comes the long-standing debate.
Since “Dolly,” the first cloned mammal, was born in 1997, there have been questions about the ethical and social implications of cloning, according to the Human Genome Project website genomics.energy.gov.
Sessions said the lab “hasn’t been affected by the controversy.”
“I don’t know if it’s because we’re under the radar,” he said, “but I don’t see what the fuss is about.”
Session explains that most people are more concerned about stem-cell research. According to genomics.energy.gov, “the goal of this process is not to create cloned human beings, but rather to harvest stem cells that can be used to study human development and to treat disease.”
During the process, researchers extract stem cells from an egg which has divided for five days, called a “blastocyst.” The extraction kills the embryo, which, the website says, is what incurs the debate. Sessions said some cause for the debate may come from the nature of cloning and how it “just piques peoples’ interest.”
While stem cell research is said to have significant medical benefits, such as helping to cure Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and diabetes, others feel killing an embryo crosses an ethical line. A 2002 New York Times article, “The Anti-Cloning Conundrum,” explored this opposing view, saying some people feel that killing the embryo is equivalent to killing a person, or, murder.
Another argument has also been made by those who favor the research but still have moral reservations about killing embryos. In this middle-of-the-road argument, the stem cells would be collected from left-over embryos from fertility clinics, often involved in in-vitro fertilization treatments.
In-vitro fertilization, according to the American Pregnancy Association (APA), is “the process of fertilization by manually combining an egg and sperm in a laboratory dish.” Because success rates are usually below 35 percent at best, excess embryos are created to ensure the best chances.
Currently, these embryos left over from in-vitro fertilization treatments are “discarded” after clients of the clinics finish their treatments.
Aside from cloning, the integrated bio-sytems lab also researches proteomics (proteins and molecular structure of disease), flow cytometry and bioprocessing (microbial fermentation and animal cell culture). Recently, the lab has been working on cloning a horse, Sessions said.
– k.vandyke@aggiemail.usu.edu