Ian Wilmut

Infobox Scientist


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name = Ian Wilmut
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birth_date = 1944-07-07
birth_place = Hampton Lucy, England
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residence = Edinburgh, Scotland
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field = embryologist
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alma_mater = University of Nottingham, Cambridge
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prizes = 1997 Time man of the year runner upNash, Madeleine [http://www.time.com/time/moy/runnerwilmut.html "Dr. Ian Wilmut and Molly"] Time magazine]
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Prof. Sir Ian Wilmut OBE (born July 7 1944) is an Scottish embryologist and is currently one of the leaders of the Queen's Medical Research Institute at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known as the man who played a supervisory, but not a scientific, role in the team that in 1996 first cloned a mammal, a Finn Dorset lamb named Dolly. He was granted an OBE in 1999 for services to embryo development. In December 2007 it was announced that he would be knighted in the 2008 New Year Honours.

Biography

Wilmut was born in Hampton Lucy, Warwickshire), EnglandFact|date=December 2007, and became interested in biology while working as a farmhand.Academy of Achievement [http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/wil0int-1 "Ian Wilmut Interview"] [http://www.achievement.org Academy of Achievement] ]

His father, Leonard Wilmut, was a maths teacher who had a severe case of diabetes that caused blindness.Fact|date=December 2007

Wilmut met Christopher Polge, who had discovered cryopreservation in 1949, and became fascinated with the research. He earlier desired to embark on a naval career, but was unable to do so because of his colour blindness.cite news | title = Dolly the sheep creator knighted | publisher = BBC | date = 2007-12-29 | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7163587.stm | accessdate = 2007-12-30]

He was a student of the former Boy's High School, in Scarborough, where his father taught.

After attending the University of Nottingham for his undergraduate degree, Wilmut was awarded a Ph.D. from Cambridge in 1971; his subsequent research led to the birth of the first calf from a frozen embryo — "Frosty" — in 1973.Fact|date=December 2007

Steen Willadsen, at Cambridge, England, was the first to clone a mammal from differentiated cells, from sheep embryos, in 1984. [ [http://library.thinkquest.org/24355/data/details/1984.html Thinkquest website] ] [ [http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file&file_id=RDv17n2_PA.pdf Australian CSIRO report] ]

In 1995, Keith Campbell and Bill Ritchie succeeded in producing a pair of lambs, Megan and Morag from embryonic cells. Dolly the sheep, a Finn Dorset sheep, named after the singer, Dolly Parton, was born in 1996. Dolly was the first clone derived from adult cells. She died early, in 2003, at 6 years old. In 1998 another sheep Polly was created. She was made from genetically altered skin cells to contain a human gene.

He was knighted in the 2008 New Year Honours for "services to science".

It has been reported that Wilmut is abandoning cloning in light of Shinya Yamanaka's work on induced pluripotent stem cells.cite web | url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/08/ndolly08.xml | title=Telegraph | News | accessdate=2006-08-20] [cite news |first=Roger |last=Highfield |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Dolly creator Prof Ian Wilmut shuns cloning |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/11/16/scidolly116.xml |work=The Sunday Times |publisher= |date=2007-11-16 |accessdate=2007-12-11 See also [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/11/16/scidolly116.xml] ]

It has been reported that the Queen has been petitioned to deny Wilmut's honour. [ [http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/jan2008/petition_wilmut.html A petition to her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II ] ] [ [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3285475.ece Honour for creator of Dolly the sheep ‘is insult to science’] ] [ [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/dolly-scientist-should-be-stripped-of-his-knighthood-colleagues-tell-queen-776746.html Dolly scientist should be stripped of his knighthood, colleagues tell queen] ] [ [http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=400407&c=1 TES report] ] [ [http://blogs.independent.co.uk/openhouse/2008/02/arise-sir-keith.html The Independent's view] ]

References

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1512377/I-didn%27t-clone-Dolly-the-sheep%2C-says-prof.html

External links

* [http://www.genetics-and-society.org/newsletter/archive/20060329.html Newsletter, Center for Genetics and Society]
* [http://www.ed.ac.uk/news/050324reprodbiol.html Dolly Scientist Joins The University of Edinburgh]
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1512377/I-didn%27t-clone-Dolly-the-sheep%2C-says-prof.html Daily Telegraph item]
* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2006/mar/11/genetics.highereducation1 The Guardian item]
* [http://english.people.com.cn/200603/13/eng20060313_250276.html The People's Daily item]