Debat: klonen, 15 jaar na dolly

Excellent scientists in conversation

15 years ago, Dolly, the world's first cloned sheep, was born. A great moment for Eos, FWO and deBuren to look back on that milestone. Reinout Verbeke (Eos) speaks with, among others, Prof. Dr. Catherine Verfaillie (KU Leuven) about the lessons Dolly taught us. The revolutionary 'Dolly technique', which showed for the first time that cells can 'forget' their specialization (as a brain cell, liver cell or kidney cell) and can adopt a new one, has enabled us to push the boundaries of cloning even further. and since Dolly many lambs, mice and other animals have been cloned. Cloning a primate has not yet been successful, but at the time it seemed only a matter of time. What is the status of animal cloning today? Is a cloned human in the making? And what are the great promises of stem cell therapy, which involves cloning for therapeutic use? We wonder: how far can (and want!) we go?

SPEAKERS

Catherine Verfaillie is a doctor and full professor at the Catholic University Leuven. She is internationally known for her groundbreaking work in the field of stem cell research and heads the Stem Cell Institute in Leuven.