Question: Will cloning become a standard medical procedure?

Ee Lyn Lim answered on 20 Jun 2013:

I hope so 🙂 I don’t mean cloning whole animals, like making another one of you! But scientists are hoping to take stem cells (or actually – several other kinds of cells, and turn them into stem cells) and grow organs, like a kidney, or a liver, which can then be used to replace one of your organs which might be damaged.

This is very very useful! Right now the only way we can replace organs is by waiting for someone to donate them, and then they have to be the right size, and they should ideally be from a close relative so that your immune system doesn’t think it’s some strange invader and start attacking it. Many people die waiting for organs to be donated, and even if they do get a donation, they have to be on drugs for the rest of their lives to suppress the immune system, which makes them easy targets for bacteria and viruses. But if we can take a few cells, from your blood for example, and grow them into an organ that looks exactly like your own, then you’d never have to wait, and you wouldn’t have to take immune suppressive drugs, either!

In terms of actually growing functional organs in a test tube, we’re not quite there yet, but we’re getting there! Just earlier this year scientists in the USA grew a rat’s kidney and transplanted it into a rat – where it works! just not very well. You can read more about it here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/apr/14/kidney-grown-lab-transplanted-animal