In an Australian first, UNSW researchers have developed three clones of cells from existing human embryonic stem cells. The breakthrough could lead to new treatments for diabetes, Parkinson’s disease and spinal cord injury. “This cloning of cells involves a new technique, which is a very accurate way of extracting and then growing a single cell,” said UNSW Senior Lecturer Dr Kuldip Sidhu, who is leading the research and is based at the Diabetes Transplant Unit (DTU) at the Prince of Wales Hospital, a major teaching hospital of UNSW. “There has only been one report of cloning of cells from human embryonic stem cells anywhere else in the world – in Israel.” By growing a human stem cell colony from a single cell, researchers are one step closer to deriving a homogenous population of cells of a particular type.
