EDINBURGH, Scotland, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- The Scottish scientist who created the world's first cloned sheep says he plans to seek permission to clone human tissue.
Ian Wilmut, who works at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, wants to find a cure for motor neuron disease, Sky News reported Tuesday.
Wilmut says he wants to produce cloned embryos entirely for research purposes; as soon as an experiment is completed the embryo will be destroyed.
Specifically, Wilmut says he wants to discover what goes wrong in the nerve cells of people who suffer from motor neuron disease. If successful he believes the research could have profound implications for many neurological and genetic disorders, Sky News said.
Motor neuron disease is the name given to a group of related diseases affecting the motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Motor neurons are the nerve cells along which the brain sends instructions in the form of electrical impulses to the body's muscles.
