Cloned food products get FDA stamp

Cloned cows, goats, pigs. Would you want to eat meat or milk from them? Most people have said no in polls, but a big step towards getting those products on the market came this week when the FDA reported they consider clones safe to eat.

Two notable items in this Washington Post story are 1) the FDA is proposing to create a publicly accessible database in which all research findings will be immediately published as investigation continues (some cloning companies don't like this idea much--which is a bit scary), and 2) cloning isn't a totally weird and unnatural a process. It's described this way:

"To make a clone, scientists take a single skin cell from an animal [presumably a cow in this case] they want to replicate. They fuse it with a cow egg that has had its DNA removed, resulting in the creation of an embryo that can be transferred to the womb of a surrogate mother animal. The resulting newborn is a twin of the animal that donated the initial cell."

So the clone is created from living tissue and grows inside a regular, live mom--not nearly as freaky as, in my ignorance, I thought the method was.

More-than-average problems with miscarriages, birth defects, and other problems happen, just as they do with in vitro fertilization and artificial insemination. The FDA says it can't find any significant differences in molecular composition in the cloned animals. Okay, then the question that must be addressed is do these animals seem to experience life in the same way that ordinary members of their species do? That's a tough question to answer, but it's a critical one because we all know that once humans can do something successfully with animals, messing with the same thing in humans is not far behind.

I think they eventually ought to try cloning a dog to see if that wonderful creature gives all the same joy, compassion and love to human beings as many dogs do today. If you have any doubts, check out programs like Reading with Rover and H.A.L.T. (Humans and Animals Learning Together). If the dog clone works, we can know more surely that a cloned creature may have the soul of its species.

Obesity - potential new genetic markers

In what turns out to be a rather confusing study, Nature magazine reports that people who are obese have many more microbe types in their intestines that are very efficient at extracting energy from food than thin people do. They also found that another microbe type that's less efficient increases as a person diets and is higher in thin people.

Lest you get too excited, as I started to, thinking okay, yeah, this means my fat is genetically determined, they're not willing to go that far yet. But they see some suspicious stuff when they take these gut flora from obese mice and implant them into normal mice--those normal guys put on a lot more fat than could be expected just from that one change. They're going to keep studying, because it's not clear yet which comes first--does the change in flora bring on the weight loss or vice versa? But there's hope that one day we might be able to take a couple of spoonfuls of something that will use our natural body composition to make us less susceptible to gaining weight and/or more likely to be able to lose it when we try.

Like the discovery that there may be a genetic factor involved in alcoholism, further studies could mean that those who struggle with their weight may be able to feel less sense of shame. More here: Gut Bacteria May Determine Dieting Efficiency.

Molecular condom women can use to protect against AIDS

AIDS is not arrested by any means. In many countries it's spreading without restraint where the poor have sex without protection and women are regularly raped. A first iteration has just been developed of a "molecular condom." It's a liquid designed to used daily by a woman and will turn itself on whenever sperm is introduced into her cervix and deliver a dose of anti-HIV drugs--a "microbicide."

This research will lead the way towards empowering women to take responsibility for preventing harm and unwanted pregnancies for themselves. It's not there yet, unfortunately. They're talking 10 years before a usable version comes out. But research is at least looking in the right directions. Now all we have to do is keep finding the money to support these kinds of initiatives--and start educating more men to take responsibility, too.