 |
 |
Dolly cloners take out million-dollar science prize Posted June 11, 2008 00:27:00 The scientists behind Dolly, the world's first cloned sheep, have been announced as the winners of the Shaw Prize, the million-dollar award known as the Nobel Prize of the east. British scientists Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell were awarded the life science and medical prize along with Japanese professor Shinya Yamanaka for their work in stem cell research, organisers said in a statement. "(Their work) advances our knowledge of developmental biology and holds great promise for the treatment of human diseases and improvements in agriculture practices," the statement said. Dolly was welcomed as a scientific breakthrough in 1996, but drew criticism from religious groups and pro-life campaigners. Dr Wilmut said last year he was switching from his method of cloning mammals from adult cells - which produced Dolly - to Dr Yamanaka's technique. The Kyoto University scientist has managed to create stem cells from fragments of skin from mice without using embryos and has worked on recreating the process with human cells. "Based on this discovery, animal experiments by others have already shown that it was possible to cure mouse models of sickle cell anaemia and Parkinson's Disease," the organisers said. The Shaw Prize for Astronomy was awarded to German Reinhard Genzel for his proof that the Milky Way contains a supermassive black hole at its centre. The award for mathematical sciences was shared by Russians Ludwig Faddeev and Vladimir Arnold for their work in mathematical physics, including mapping the motion of the planets around the sun. The Shaw Prize was established in 2002 under the auspices of Run Run Shaw, a renowned Hong Kong film producer and philanthropist. The award in each category is $US1 million ($1.06 million). Rayilyn Brown Board Member AZNPF Arizona Chapter National Parkinson's Foundation [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn