Faculty Staff Q&A

Charles R. Fourtner, professor of biological sciences and an animal physiologist whose areas of study include clones, has been a member of the UB faculty since 1974.

Is it realistic to think we can clone a human being?

Let's first of all define "a clone." I will consider it as a group of organisms, tissue or cells with identical genetic material. For example, there are populations of worker honeybees that are clones. In our department, Mary Alice Coffert and Howard Lasker study clonal corals and I have worked on worms that are clones. Individuals in these coral and worm populations have the same genetic makeup because they reproduce by asexual mechanisms. Body tissues are likewise clonal, since they have the same genes, but can look very different because different genes are expressed (i.e., transcribe different proteins) due to selective cues in their environment. Finally, we have clonal cell lines that are derived from a single cell or cell type. Now, if we limit our discussion of clones to these examples, I can attempt to answer some of your questions.

Can we clone Homo sapiens?

In fact, we already have clones of humans, and perhaps the most perfect examples of clonal types is identical twins. They have the identical gene pool and develop from one cell with the same cytoplasm; i.e., their initial conditions are identical.

Can we start with a nucleus from a different cell type (a gut cell), inject it into an egg and produce a clonal organism?

Certainly, but there are technical and biochemical problems to overcome. Most of the technical difficulties have been addressed in the examples of cloning that are covered recently in the press: getting a viable nucleus, moving the nucleus to another (egg) cell type that had been enucleated. The biochemical/molecular biology strategies need to be addressed. Other considerations: the control of gene function differs from cell type to cell type...how are genes expressed...what are the factors controlling expression, just to name a couple. The scientific community is clearly aware of these nuances of cell development and differentiation. This, I believe, is indicative in the small number of successes in sheep cloning.

Why would we want to clone a human being?

I haven't the slightest idea.

What do you see as the greatest potential benefit of cloning a human being?

I don't see any at all. We already have sufficient problems with population control!

What are some of the perils of human cloning?

The same perils we, as scientists, have in developing any experimental procedure. The initial results, when viable, will be incomplete, deficient and probably dependent on our social-medical system for years to survive.

Cloning human organs for transplantation also has been mentioned in the debate. Is that really a feasible prospect?

This is one of the most interesting aspects of cloning. We need to learn the control mechanisms for gene expression that directs the development of the different cell types found in organs.

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to treat various and sundry diseases and tissue damage, by replacing cells and organs?

In fact, this use of clonal cells lines has already begun. Cells in the pancreas producing insulin are available for transplantation. Skin tissue, a rather uncomplicated type of organ, can be cloned and used for grafting. Non-infected stem cells, which give rise to blood cells, will be cloned from individuals with blood diseases and these cloned cells will replace the diseased cells. Cloning the more complicated organs, such as heart and kidneys, is still a future dream. We need to know the various chemical inducers and controllers that give rise to the different tissues within these organs. I would hope that my grandchildren would be able to have organs, grown from cell lines with their own genetic material, available if their original organs became diseased.

Would you want to be cloned? Why or why not?

You or I as individuals can't be cloned. Your genetic material could be placed in an egg some time in the future and produce an organism with an identical gene pattern and a similar phenotype, physical appearance. That organism would not be you. Ask any set of identical twins if they consider themselves to be the same individual. I think they would argue that, although their physical traits are identical and they may behave similarly, they certainly are different individuals. I think this is the press' difficulty with the concept of cloning. Cloning does not make a reproduction of the same individual.

Do you think cloning humans is a responsible idea?

I think it is an extremely poor replacement for the procedure we currently used for continuation of the species.

What's something people don't know about you and should?

Just an historical note with respect to UB. As a first-year graduate student years ago, my initial research lab experience (in R. Neal Band's lab at Michigan State) was nuclear transplantation between species of ameba. I bring this up because some of the original work on nuclear transplantation, using ameba, was done by Jim Danelli, who, in the late '60s, was the dean of Natural Sciences and Math here at UB.

What question do you wish I had asked, and how would you have answered it?

I think of more importance to human welfare is the "cloning" advances in the genetic manufacturing of targeted proteins, for example, the recent work on milk cows to produce selected proteins in bulk. A discussion of these advancements in agricultural techniques would be the basis of a wonderful article.