伊恩.威爾穆特——克隆先鋒

多莉是份獎賞。有時當科學家努力工作時，他們就會有好運氣。這就是發生的一切。

——伊恩·威爾穆特

Dolly was a bonus. Sometimes when scientists work hard， they also get lucky， and that's what happened.

——Ian Wilmut

伊恩·威爾穆特(1945--)，世界著名克隆羊·多莉”之父，著名胚胎學家，英國皇家科學院院士，蘇格蘭皇家科學院院士，美國科學院院士。2008年被授予爵士爵位，現任愛丁堡大學蘇格蘭再生醫學中心主任。

In 1997， out of a research institute in Scotland， a lamb named Dolly came roaring existential questions， for Dolly was a clone. If sheep could be cloned，could humans be far behind?

Dolly is a carbon copy of her mother， grown from a cell taken from an adult ewe's mammary gland1. The father， in a sense， is embryologist2 Ian Wilmut.

Wilmut was born in Hampton Lucey， England， and raised in the ancient town of Coventry， a medieval town devastated by German bombs during World War II. His childhood interest in the outdoors and farming led him to study agricultural studies at the nearby University of Nottingham. Summer internships in focused his interest on embryology. He began to concentrate on animal genetic engineering and received his doctorate at the Uiversity of Cambridge in 1971. His thesis was on the freezing of boar semen3. Since his postdoctoral work， he has been in the forefront of genetic research.

In 1973， he was part of the team that produced the first calf from a frozen embryo， an animal the team named Frosty. In 1974 he joined the Animal Breeding Research Station in Edinburgh， Scotland， a nonprofit organization affiliated with the University of Edinburgh. It is known today as the Roslin Institute.

A conversation in a pub in 1986 changed the course of his career. He was told that a Danish embryologist had succeed in producing a lamb from the cells of an already-developing lamb embryo. Wilmut began to explore the possibility of cloning a lamb from cells of an adult sheep.

When another laboratory produced a fraudulent report of the successful cloning of mice， funding for cloning research nearly dried up. Wilmut and his colleague， Keith Campbell worked on virtually alone while the rest of the scientific community abandoned the concept.

In early 1996 ，Wilmut and his team at Roslin first succeeded in producing a pair of lambs， Megan and Morag from embryonic cells. This accomplislunent created a stir in the world of genetic science but scarcely caused a ripple among the general public. A very different reaction took place a little more than a year later. In February 1997， Wilmut announced the birth of a lamb called Dolly， named for country singer Dolly Parton. Unlike the previous clones， Dolly was created from the fusion of an ovum4 with the mammary cell of an adult sheep， creating a genetic replica of the original animal.

The announcement created a sensation--The same trick that enabled scientists to clone Dolly could one day be used to clone a human being， a possibility Wilmut finds dismaying. The father of three argues that it is every child's birthright to be regarded as unique， not a counterfeit5 version of someone whose strengths and shortcomings have been revealed. The President of the U. S. and the Pontiff in Rome sounded alarms. Laws were debated， ethical6 questions raised， scientists were hauled before legislative panels and warned not to trespass7 on human territory.

Despite the misgivings many have about this kind of research， it is a discovery of fundamental importance. It proves that cells of an adult animal can be returned to the undifferentiated embryonic state from which a complete animal can develop.

The cloning of animals holds out the promise of significant development for medicine. The proteins of pig cells， for example， are identical to those found in human cells， and may enable the production of proteins needed for the treatment of hemophilia8， or even the synthesis9 of donor organs for human transplant patients. Producers of milk and wool may also benefit from the cloning of the best strains10 of cows and sheep.

Ian Wilmut's work has been recognized by many awards and honorary degrees. In 2000， he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh， the highest Scottish society of learning， and in the previous year was made a member of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.

1997年，蘇格蘭一家研究所外，一只名叫多莉的小羊出生了。它的出生引起了“存在”的問題，因為它是只克隆羊。如果羊都可以被克隆了，人類離克隆還會遠嗎?

多莉是她媽媽的復制，從母羊的乳腺細胞培育而來。而她的爸爸，從某種意義上來說，就是胚胎學家伊恩·威爾穆特。

威爾穆特出生在英格蘭的漢普頓露西，在古鎮考文垂長大，考文垂曾在二次世界大戰中遭德國炸彈的破壞。因為從小對戶外和農耕感興趣，他去了附近的諾丁漢大學攻讀農學學位。暑假實習讓他把興趣點集中在胚胎學上。他開始專注于動物基因工程，并在1971年取得了劍橋的博士學位。他的畢業論文是關于精子冷凍的。做博士后工作的時候，他已經站在基因研究的前沿了。

1973年，他參與培育了第一頭用冷凍胚胎培養出來的牛“冷凍”。1974年，他加入了蘇格蘭愛丁堡的動物繁育研究站，一家隸屬于愛丁堡大學的非贏利機構，也是現在羅斯林研究所的前身。

1986年，酒吧里的一席談話改變了他的研究方向。有人告訴他，一位丹麥胚胎學家成功地用取自成熟羊胚胎的細胞培育出了一只羊。威爾穆特開始研究用成年羊細胞克隆羊的可能性。

當另一家實驗室發表了虛假的成功克隆老鼠的報告，克隆研究的經費幾乎要枯竭了。威爾穆特和他的同事凱斯·坎貝爾獨自堅持研究克隆，而科學界的其他人都拋棄了這個概念。

1996年初，威爾穆特和他在羅斯林的團隊首次成功用胚胎細胞培育出一對小羊，摩根和莫瑞。這項成果在基因科學界引起了很大的反響，大眾卻沒有太多反應。一年多以后的1997年2月，威爾穆特宣布了小羊多莉的出生，這只小羊是以鄉村歌手多莉·帕頓的名字命名的。這次引起了完全不同的反響。與之前的克隆不同，多莉是用成年羊的乳房細胞和卵細胞的結合體培育而來的，是原生物的基因復制。

這個消息轟動一時——科學家可以克隆多莉，那么有一天他們也可以用同樣的方法克隆人類，這樣的可能性讓威爾穆特不安。這位3個孩子的父親辯解說每個孩子的出生都應該是獨一無二的，而不是一個顯現了優點和缺點的人的仿造版。美國總統和羅馬主教敲響了警鐘。法律受到了爭辯;道德問題凸顯;科學家被帶到立法組面前，警告他們不能侵犯人類的領域。

盡管對這種研究有很多疑慮，這仍然是具有重要意義的發現。它證明了成年動物的細胞可以回到無差別的胚胎狀態，而胚胎狀態的細胞又可以發育成完整的個體。

動物克隆為醫藥進步提供了條件。例如，豬細胞的蛋白質和人類細胞蛋白質一致，那么就可以生產用于治療血友病的蛋白質，甚至移植器官。牛奶和羊毛生產者也受益于克隆技術，因為克隆技術可以選擇牛和羊的血統。

伊恩·威爾穆特的工作為他獲得了很多的獎勵和高貴的身份。2000年，他當選蘇格蘭最高學會愛丁堡皇家學會的會員，前一年，伊麗莎白二世授予他大英帝國騎士爵位。

注釋

①gland:n.腺;無分泌功能的腺狀組織

②embryologist:n.胚胎學家

③semen:n.精子

④ovum:n.卵細胞

⑤counterfeit:adj.仿造的

⑥ethical:adj.道德的

⑦trespass:v.侵犯

⑧hemophilia:n.血友病

⑨synthesis:n.綜合

⑩strain:n.血統