A good cause for cloning

Political opposition to cloning research has been widespread, but the scientific community has only begun to demonstrate the potential therapeutic usefulness of the technique. Animal results published last week in Nature Medicine by Advanced Cell Technology Inc. (Worcester, Mass.) and colleagues could provide more evidence that cloning has therapeutic application.

The researchers used neural cells from cloned bovine embryos to treat Parkinson's disease in rats. The cells were taken from the ventral mesencephalon of the embryos, a region that contains dopamine-producing neurons. Transplantation into Parkinsonian rats resulted in improved motor performance...