Such therapeutic cloning might be used to create stem cells from people with specific diseases.
"We don't know yet how to contend with specific diseases, like downy mildew and black rot.
Until that changes, scientists who want to create embryos — and extract stem cells — matched to patients with specific diseases will have to rely on private or state support.
What they do instead is scan your DNA for markers associated with specific diseases.
By identifying haplotypes and mapping their chromosomal locations, scientists are able to associate genetic variants with specific diseases and disorders.
By watching what happened when those stem cells matured into the cell types afflicted with specific diseases, scientists could learn a great deal about the underlying causes of such diseases and how they progress in human cells.
Their chief interest is to derive embryonic stem cell lines from patients with specific diseases, and by tracking the cells in the test tube to develop basic knowledge about how the disease develops.
These references will serve as a baseline in other studies, in the same way that the original human genome project sequenced a reference genome to which scientists can now compare their own results to identify changes associated with specific diseases.
Fearing controversy, the N.I.H. decided to deny support to research using lines that might eventually be created in the laboratory by "therapeutic cloning" to match specific patients with specific diseases.
But researchers using private money have created more than 700 stem cell lines, some with specific diseases or mutations, many of which may now be eligible for federal financing.
The joint effort is intended to reduce the costs of running a registry for many of the 1,000 groups in the United States that represent people with specific diseases.
