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| Ian Wilmut | |
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| Born | 1944-07-07 Hampton Lucy, England |
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| Residence | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Fields | embryologist |
| Alma mater | University of Nottingham, Cambridge |
| Notable awards | 1997 Time man of the year runner up[1] |
Prof. Sir Ian Wilmut OBE (born July 7, 1944) is an Scottish embryologist and is currently one of the leaders of the Queen's Medical Research Institute at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known as the man who played a supervisory, but not a scientific, role in the team that in 1996 first cloned a mammal, a Finn Dorset lamb named Dolly. He was granted an OBE in 1999 for services to embryo development. In December 2007 it was announced that he would be knighted in the 2008 New Year Honours.
| “ | Dolly was a bonus--sometimes when scientists work hard, they also get lucky, and that's what happened.[1] | ” |
Contents |
Biography
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This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008) |
Wilmut was born in Hampton Lucy, Warwickshire), Englandcitation needed, and became interested in biology while working as a farmhand.[2][3]
His father, Leonard Wilmut, was a maths teacher who had a severe case of diabetes that caused blindness.citation needed
Wilmut met Christopher Polge, who had discovered cryopreservation in 1949, and became fascinated with the research. He earlier desired to embark on a naval career, but was unable to do so because of his colour blindness.[3]
He was a student of the former Boy's High School, in Scarborough, where his father taught.
After attending the University of Nottingham for his undergraduate degree, Wilmut was awarded a Ph.D. from Cambridge in 1971; his subsequent research led to the birth of the first calf from a frozen embryo — "Frosty" — in 1973.citation needed
Steen Willadsen, at Cambridge, England, was the first to clone a mammal from differentiated cells, from sheep embryos, in 1984.[4] [5]
In 1995, Keith Campbell and Bill Ritchie succeeded in producing a pair of lambs, Megan and Morag from embryonic cells. Dolly the sheep, a Finn Dorset sheep, named after the singer, Dolly Parton, was born in 1996. Dolly was the first clone derived from adult cells. She died early, in 2003, at 6 years old. In 1998 another sheep Polly was created. She was made from genetically altered skin cells to contain a human gene.
He was knighted in the 2008 New Year Honours for "services to science".[3]
It has been reported that Wilmut is abandoning cloning in light of Shinya Yamanaka's work on induced pluripotent stem cells.[6] [7]
It has been reported that the Queen has been petitioned to deny Wilmut's honour. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
Controversy
Ian Wilmut's role in the Dolly project has since been disputed by his collaborators, because he was not fully qualified to do these procedures.[13]. In March 2006 it was revealed that the scientists involved in cloning Dolly the sheep are in major disagreement.
In 2006, while testifying at an Edinburgh court following accusations of racial harassment of his fellow Prim Singh, Ian Wilmut denied the accusations, but acknowledged that he was not the 'father' or "creator" of Dolly, that he performed none of the experiments, that he has minimised the role of some of his fellows, and he gave most of the credit (66%) to Keith Campbell, while playing a "supervisory" or managerial role himself. Wilmut's own credit in cloning Dolly the sheep is in doubt, but is less than 1/3rd (i.e. 1-33%) as other people, in addition to Keith Campbell, did some of the work.[6]
When asked by a reporter from the Sunday Times newspaper in 2006, ten years after cloning Dolly the sheep, about the controversy over credit for cloning Dolly the sheep, Wilmut replied "We have now done two books describing events as they were, giving everybody credit," [14]
The Geron Corporation patents to cloning depend on the Wilmut's contribution to cloning.
References
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1512377/I-didn%27t-clone-Dolly-the-sheep%2C-says-prof.html Reference 4 does not work hence the one above.
- ^ a b Nash, Madeleine Dr. Ian Wilmut and Molly Time magazine
- ^ Academy of Achievement Ian Wilmut Interview Academy of Achievement
- ^ a b c "Dolly the sheep creator knighted", BBC (2007-12-29). Retrieved on 2007-12-30.
- ^ Thinkquest website
- ^ Australian CSIRO report
- ^ a b "Telegraph". Retrieved on 2006-08-20.
- ^ Highfield, Roger (2007-11-16). "Dolly creator Prof Ian Wilmut shuns cloning", The Sunday Times. Retrieved on 2007-12-11. See also [1]
- ^ A petition to her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
- ^ Honour for creator of Dolly the sheep ‘is insult to science’
- ^ Dolly scientist should be stripped of his knighthood, colleagues tell queen
- ^ [ http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=400407&c=1 TES report]
- ^ The Independent's view
- ^ "Genetic Crossroads". Retrieved on 2006-08-20.
- ^ "I'll Dolly up the human brain", The Sunday Times (2006-06-02). Retrieved on 2007-12-11.
External links
- Newsletter, Center for Genetics and Society
- Dolly Scientist Joins The University of Edinburgh
- Daily Telegraph item
- The Guardian item
- The People's Daily item
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