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American Morning

Cloned Baby?

Aired December 30, 2002 - 07:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The company that claims to have created the first cloned human says that the baby, called Eve, is coming to the U.S. today with her family. And Clonaid says that it's going to present DNA evidence to prove its cloning claim.
Well, joining us this morning from Worcester, Massachusetts to talk about this is Robert Lanza. He's with Advanced Cell Technology, a firm that's been a pioneer in cloning research.

And thank you for your time this morning, Mr. Lanza. First off, do you believe that Clonaid has actually pulled this off?

ROBERT LANZA, ADVANCED CELL TECHNOLOGY: No, we're very, very skeptical, and we're going to have some very definitive results in the next week or two. So, we're going to know one way or the other, but again, don't hold your breath.

HARRIS: All right, what kind of results are you looking for?

LANZA: Well, I think almost certainly they're going to run a type of DNA fingerprinting known as STR. This is actually an abbreviation for Short-Tandem Repeat. And this is actually the state- of-the-art technology that's used by the FBI in paternal (ph) testing. In fact, it was actually used to verify that Dolly the sheep was a clone.

HARRIS: So...

LANZA: And we expect that...

HARRIS: I'm sorry, go ahead.

LANZA: We expect that Michael Gillen (ph) will actually be organizing an effort to be sure that these tests are carried out exactly the way they should. What will probably happen is, is they will draw blood from the mom and the child. They'll probably take a few cheek swabs. And then, what will happen is those samples will go back to the laboratory where they will actually extract the DNA from the cells.

They will then amplify it, using a procedure known as PCR. This is something known as Polymerase Chain Reaction. And then once they have that DNA, they will actually run that on a gel by a process known as electrophoresis. And what that does is it separates the DNA pieces into their sizes. So, you will end up after some staining with an exact fingerprint of the DNA.

So, we will know with 100 percent certainty whether or not the DNA of the child and the mom match one another.

HARRIS: Thank you for the 60-second science lesson there. No question (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we won't know for sure if they do run all of those tests, but here's a question I have for you. If you don't believe that Clonaid has actually pulled this off, why would they go so far as to come out and make this claim in the first place?

LANZA: Well, that's a very good question. I mean, they're going to lose all of their credibility if this is false. I think that all of us in the scientific community are so skeptical because again they have absolutely no scientific track record. But we do, in fact, know that the technology does exist to actually clone a human embryo, so we can't dismiss this altogether.

HARRIS: You know, all I've ever heard about this group is that there's some sort of a cult that believes that humans were actually made or actually populated here on the planet because thanks to some aliens that came here 25,000 years ago. Is there -- what do we know about them and their science, or if they have any credibility scientifically?

LANZA: Well, see, this is exactly it. We need to separate the fact that we may think that they're crackpots from the fact that if they have sufficient resources, they could have assembled a scientific team. And again, the technology of cloning is relatively simple, so that if they did manage to get a couple of technicians that were trained in reputable labs -- and again, we're not sure of even where these labs are -- there's a very real chance that they would have eventually developed this technology.

HARRIS: All right, finally, sir, if they did pull this off, what are the implications here for the future of cloning in this country or around the world even?

LANZA: Well, we're, of course, extremely concerned that if this did, in fact, happen that there's going to be a tremendous public outcry. We're going to be very, very concerned with what the Congress does. We're obviously very concerned about there being a backlash against the legitimate medical applications of this technology, which have, of course, the potential to cure millions of patients.

HARRIS: All right, Robert Lanza, thank you very much for your time this morning. We appreciate it. Take care.

LANZA: Sure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.







Aired December 30, 2002 - 07:17   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The company that claims to have created the first cloned human says that the baby, called Eve, is coming to the U.S. today with her family. And Clonaid says that it's going to present DNA evidence to prove its cloning claim.
Well, joining us this morning from Worcester, Massachusetts to talk about this is Robert Lanza. He's with Advanced Cell Technology, a firm that's been a pioneer in cloning research.

And thank you for your time this morning, Mr. Lanza. First off, do you believe that Clonaid has actually pulled this off?

ROBERT LANZA, ADVANCED CELL TECHNOLOGY: No, we're very, very skeptical, and we're going to have some very definitive results in the next week or two. So, we're going to know one way or the other, but again, don't hold your breath.

HARRIS: All right, what kind of results are you looking for?

LANZA: Well, I think almost certainly they're going to run a type of DNA fingerprinting known as STR. This is actually an abbreviation for Short-Tandem Repeat. And this is actually the state- of-the-art technology that's used by the FBI in paternal (ph) testing. In fact, it was actually used to verify that Dolly the sheep was a clone.

HARRIS: So...

LANZA: And we expect that...

HARRIS: I'm sorry, go ahead.

LANZA: We expect that Michael Gillen (ph) will actually be organizing an effort to be sure that these tests are carried out exactly the way they should. What will probably happen is, is they will draw blood from the mom and the child. They'll probably take a few cheek swabs. And then, what will happen is those samples will go back to the laboratory where they will actually extract the DNA from the cells.

They will then amplify it, using a procedure known as PCR. This is something known as Polymerase Chain Reaction. And then once they have that DNA, they will actually run that on a gel by a process known as electrophoresis. And what that does is it separates the DNA pieces into their sizes. So, you will end up after some staining with an exact fingerprint of the DNA.

So, we will know with 100 percent certainty whether or not the DNA of the child and the mom match one another.

HARRIS: Thank you for the 60-second science lesson there. No question (UNINTELLIGIBLE) we won't know for sure if they do run all of those tests, but here's a question I have for you. If you don't believe that Clonaid has actually pulled this off, why would they go so far as to come out and make this claim in the first place?

LANZA: Well, that's a very good question. I mean, they're going to lose all of their credibility if this is false. I think that all of us in the scientific community are so skeptical because again they have absolutely no scientific track record. But we do, in fact, know that the technology does exist to actually clone a human embryo, so we can't dismiss this altogether.

HARRIS: You know, all I've ever heard about this group is that there's some sort of a cult that believes that humans were actually made or actually populated here on the planet because thanks to some aliens that came here 25,000 years ago. Is there -- what do we know about them and their science, or if they have any credibility scientifically?

LANZA: Well, see, this is exactly it. We need to separate the fact that we may think that they're crackpots from the fact that if they have sufficient resources, they could have assembled a scientific team. And again, the technology of cloning is relatively simple, so that if they did manage to get a couple of technicians that were trained in reputable labs -- and again, we're not sure of even where these labs are -- there's a very real chance that they would have eventually developed this technology.

HARRIS: All right, finally, sir, if they did pull this off, what are the implications here for the future of cloning in this country or around the world even?

LANZA: Well, we're, of course, extremely concerned that if this did, in fact, happen that there's going to be a tremendous public outcry. We're going to be very, very concerned with what the Congress does. We're obviously very concerned about there being a backlash against the legitimate medical applications of this technology, which have, of course, the potential to cure millions of patients.

HARRIS: All right, Robert Lanza, thank you very much for your time this morning. We appreciate it. Take care.

LANZA: Sure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.