 Scientists have grown stem cells from adults using cloning techniques for the first time — bringing them closer to developing patient-specific lines of cells that can be used to treat a whole host of ailments, from heart disease to blindness. The scientists’ technique was similar to the one used in the first clone of a mammal, Dolly the sheep, which was created in 1996. As with the 2013 experiment, done by researchers at the Oregon Health and Science University, Dr. Lanza and his colleagues first extracted the DNA from an unfertilized human egg and replaced it with the DNA from one of the older donors. Cells from the blastocyst then were cultured in a lab dish and yielded stem cells that were an exact match to the donor's DNA. Only one group has ever succeeded, and their lines were generated using fetal and infant cells.” 
 
 That was last year, at Oregon Health & Science University. They used a bit of skin from each man, took the DNA from the skin cells and inserted it into the egg cell of a female donor, and grew very early embryos called blastocysts, the team reports in the journal Cell Stem Cell. Cells from these embryos closely match the men and could, in theory, be used to make near-identical tissue, blood or organ transplants for the men. So if you can't do this with adult cells, it is of limited value," said Robert Lanza, co-author of the study and chief scientific officer at Advanced Cell Technology Inc. ACTC -0.68% Advanced Cell Technology Inc. U.S.: OTC $0.06 -0.00 -0.68% P/E Ratio N/A Market Cap $162.45 Million Dividend Yield N/A Rev. However the techniques in theory could be a first step toward creating a baby with the same genetic makeup as a donor. "If we're closer to some rogue scientist or fertility doctor using published techniques to create cloned humans, it certainly ups the stakes and means we should be moving to put a federal law in place," said Marcy Darnovsky, executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society, a nonprofit public interest group in Berkeley, Calif. 
 
 Write to Gautam Naik at gautam.naik@wsj.com The research was conducted in California by a large team that included representatives from both academia and industry and was funded by a private medical foundation and South Korea’s Ministry of Science. If verified, it would be only the second confirmed time someone’s been able to use cloning methods to make human embryonic stem cells, considered the body’s master cells. “Therapeutic cloning has long been envisioned as a means for generating patient-specific stem cells that could be used to treat a range of age-related diseases,” said Dr. Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer for Advanced Cell Technology. "I'm happy to hear that our experiment was verified and shown to be genuine," said Shoukhrat Mitalipov, a development biologist at Oregon Health and Science University, in Portland, Ore., who led the 2013 study that Dr. Lanza and his colleagues have now replicated. Dozens of countries have laws explicitly banning human reproductive cloning, though there is no equivalent federal law in the U.S.
– A team of researchers has made a sure-to-be controversial breakthrough in both stem cell and cloning research, creating stem cells from two adults using cloning techniques. The researchers took DNA from skin cells from two men, aged 35 and 75, and injected it into unfertilized eggs whose DNA had been removed, NBC News explains. They then zapped the eggs with electricity to coax them into dividing until they became early-stage embryos, which were then used to make embryonic stem cells—with DNA identical to the donors. In theory, the technique could be used to produce tissue perfectly suited to patients. The technique has been carried out successfully once before, but using cells from infants. "If you can't do this with adult cells, it is of limited value," a study co-author tells the Wall Street Journal, because there are more diseases the therapy can treat for adults. What the research paper leaves unsaid is that this is also a breakthrough in human cloning, the Washington Post points out. While the very early-stage embryos might not be viable in a womb, the prospect is now closer.