Ian Wilmut

Ian Wilmut, (born July 7, 1944) is an English embryologist. An embryologist studies the development of an embryo from the fertilization of the ovum to the fetus stage. Currently he is director of the Medical Research Council Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He was granted an OBE in 1999 for services to embryo development. Wilmut worked as a farm hand on weekends during school, which inspired him to study Agriculture at the University of Nottingham. He chose to study farming at the University of Nottingham because he wanted to work outdoors. There he discovered that he had no aptitude for the business aspect of commercial farming. Instead, he became interested in research. His father’s disease may have been another factor that led Wilmut to develop an interest in this field. In January 1996, Wilmut began the cloning procedure. No other scientists were yet able to replicate Wilmut's experiment of creating a sheep from the adult cell of another sheep. After cloning Dolly, Wilmut went on to produce Molly and Polly. They were each cloned with a human gene that allowed their milk to contain a blood clotting protein, which could be extracted to treat human hemophilia. Eventually, herds of sheep with genetic proteins in their milk could be produced, turning them into living drug factories for other diseases as well. In 1999, Wilmut lobbied for a change in the 1990 Human Fertilization and Embryology Act in Great Britain to allow the use of surplus eggs from assisted fertilization treatments to be developed for fourteen days. Stem cells with the power to grow into all other cells of the body would then be obtained before the embryos were destroyed. These cells could be used to develop therapeutic treatments for diseased or damaged tissues or organs. donated eggs, which could then be developed into a short-lived embryonic clone of the sick parent. The new healthy cells could be transferred into the parent and curing the disease.He is known for