Tyler+Hanft

Founder and CEO- Tyler Hanft Ph.D. Hanft Transfers facilities and labs are located right outside Salt Lake City, Utah. Here at Hanft Transfers we have dedicated our lives to studying, researching, and experimenting with the applications of a process known as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) since the company was founded by Tyler Hanft in 2000 shortly after the famous Dolly the Sheep and many other animals were cloned. Hanft Transfers has made remarkable advances in the field of SCNT and looks to continue on improving the consistency and success rate of cloning. Hanft Transfers is currently working on projects such as conserving endangered species, mass production of agricultural animals, and other various beneficial cloning projects are as wild and as complex as bringing a woolly mammoth back to life. Hanft Transfers is working on positively affecting the world with its research and experiments involving SCNT. I am now 40 years old and a world renowned biologist and truly at the top of my field. My love for science and more specifically biology began in 7th grade when I dissected a frog for the first time in my life. Ever since then I knew that someday I would be a biologist when I grew up. After working hard throughout high school at Niskayuna to achieve a 4.5 GPA I was accepted into Harvard University. After studying mostly cells, regenerative medicine, and stem cell research there I graduated at the top of my class with a doctorate in biological engineering. I then received an internship with Bio-Rad. After more closely studying stem cells during my internship and using various sorts of technologies to manipulate cells and DNA I decided what I really wanted to do. My parents had just died in a plane crash and I received a massive amount of inheritance money from them. Instead of mourning the past I set my mind on the future of myself and mankind in general. I decided to open up my own company (Hanft Transfers) to improve the world by means of cloning cells and organisms using SCNT. I was highly interested in biotechnology at the time and at the same time cloning seemed like the coolest thing in the world. When they cloned Dolly the Sheep I knew that cloning was something that I definitely wanted to work with. And what better to do then something you and something that is beneficial for you, your generation, and future generations. 1938- Hans Spemann experiments with cloning with salamanders. Produced and cloned a salamander embryo. Proposes the idea of Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (The fantastical experiment) but doesn’t have the technology to carry out the procedure himself. 1952- Briggs and Thomas clone frogs and produced baby tadpoles with an experiment extremely close to the one proposed by Hans Spemann. 1996- First cloning of mammal. Dolly the Sheep was successfully cloned from adult sheep cells (was the first animal cloned from somatic cells).Before Dolly was successfully cloned there were 276 previously failed attempts of cloning the sheep from somatic cells(less than one percent success rate). Cloning mammals turned out to be much more difficult than non mammal.
 * __Hanft Transfers __**
 * About Hanft Transfers **
 * Who is Ceo and Founder Tyler Hanft? **
 * History of Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer **



1998- Mice, Goats, and Cows were successfully cloned 2000- Monkeys and Pigs were cloned 2001- A Gaur, a Cat, and Rabbits were cloned. 2002- A Rat was cloned 2003- A mule was clone. This is particularly special considering mules are sterile and therefore can’t naturally reproduce. 2003- A deer, an ox, and a horse were cloned. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">2004- Ferrets were cloned. (Ferrets are very useful when studying human respiratory diseases). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">2004- Woo-Suk Hwang claimed to have cloned a human embryo. The experiment couldn’t be proven and/or repeated and eventually his paper was retracted. (Cloning humans and primates is even more difficult than cloning other mammals. A reason for this is that two proteins essential for cell division, spindle proteins are located very close to the chromosomes in primate eggs. This means that when you try to remove the egg’s nucleus to make room for the donor nucleus you accidently also remove the spindle proteins which interferes with cell division. Most other mammals the two spindle proteins are spread out threw the egg so that the removal doesn’t result in the loss of the spindle proteins). <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">2005- A dog and wolves were cloned. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">2007- FDA approves of using cloned animals and their offspring for food. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">2009- A buffalo was cloned.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer is a process that requires many things and multiple steps. The first thing you do when performing SCNT you need to acquire a somatic cell (also knows as a diploid cell or 2n cell). This can be any cell in the body besides a sperm or egg cell. Skin cells are a popular cells to use in this stage because they’re very common and relatively easy to collect without a lot of pain. The cells that are collected then are placed in various enzyme mixtures that ensure you only collect one layer of cells without any other types of cells contaminating it. Then you collect an egg cell from a female donor. Once extracted, florescent tags are attached to the DNA of the egg to enable a way to check that the entire DNA has been properly removed. The eggs nucleus is then removed using an inverted microscope, uv light and a glass needle. The process of removing the nucleus from a cell is also known as enucleating.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 19px;">How does Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer Work? **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">In the top 2 boxes you can see normal egg cells containing nuclei. In the top right the arrows are pointing to the nuclei. // //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">In the bottom 2 boxes you can see the egg cells after enucleation where the nuclei are no longer visible. // <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Next once you have an egg cell enucleated you extract the nucleus from the somatic donor cell that you want to replicate with a pipette. Once extracted the nucleus is known as a karyoplast. At this point you are ready to transfer the karyoplast DNA into the enucleated egg cell. You inject the karyoplast back into the egg cell that has been nucleated. Once you have done this you have to fuse the two parts of the cell together so you can truly carry out mitotic reproduction. You can do this by sending a few electrical pulses throughout the solution to fuse the nucleus with the egg cell. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Finally the egg, which now has the nucleus of the somatic cell fused inside of it, is incubated in a culture medium of 37 degrees Celsius in highly humidified conditions. This is to try and represent uterine conditions so that the embryo will develop and grow. After multiple mitotic divisions the cell forms a blastocyst (early stage embryo with around 100 cells). Once the hybrid egg becomes a blastocyst it can be implanted in a surrogate mother who carries the developing embryo like a normal pregnancy. Eventually, time depending on the animal trying to be cloned, the surrogate mother will give birth to the hybrid cell which in theory will be a perfect clone of the organism that you extracted the nucleus out of the somatic cell. The organism that is birthed should have exactly the same DNA as the organism that you took the somatic cell from. At this point you have completed SCNT and the goal of cloning an organism using a somatic cell nucleus, an enucleated egg cell, and a surrogate mother has been completed and accomplished. However as of right now this entire process is far from perfect. There are extremeley high amounts of stress put on the nucleus and the egg cell which in result leads to the loss of multiple cells. For example Dolly the Sheep was only able to be successfully cloned after 277 failed attempts!

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">- //A blastocyst//

//<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Overview of Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer //

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer can be used in a number of different ways that extremely beneficial.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 19px;">Current Applications of Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Cloned animals are extremely beneficial in genetic research especially in combating the wide range of genetic diseases because all the animals are genetically identical so their responses to drugs should be uniform. The fact that all of the organisms are identical that are being cloned eliminates one variable in the experiment.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Can clone genetically modified animals. We have cloned a genetically modified sheep that produce milk that contains a human protein essential for proper blood clotting. (One day we hope that this protein will be able to purified from the milk and given to humans whose blood doesn’t clot properly). Another reason to clone genetically modified animals is to clone ones that are genetically “perfect” animals. Animals that produce leaner and better quality meat or produce more milk. And by mass cloning these animals you could have potentially massive amounts of genetically “perfect” animals. This is partly possible because the FDA declared in 2007 that the meat and products such as milk from cloned animals were safe and could be used.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Cloning animals that are endangered and near extinction to save them from becoming extinct is an application that we have already done and I think will continue. In 2001 researchers produced a baby gaur and in 2003 a type of endangered ox was successfully cloned and soon after 3 Asian wildcats were successfully cloned. Experts argue at whether or not that his could completely save an endangered species that would otherwise disappear. People who oppose cloning argue that the clones amount other complications could lack the genetic variability for a species to survive but here at Hanft transfers were are looking forward to cloning endangered animals and seeing what we can preserve for future generations.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Xenotransplantations are another use for SCNT. Organ shortage is a big problem in the United States. Thousands of people die each year on the waiting list to receive an organ donor but aren’t able to get it because of a shortage. Genetically modified pigs can have genes deleted from them so a human body wouldn’t reject one of its organs in a transplant. If this is the case we can clone these genetically modified animals and create somewhat of an organ bank threw the cloning of these animals with SCNT. This way there is a large amount of readily available organs that can be transplanted into people and used to save lives.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Here at Hanft Transfers we are extremely excited and optimistic about the future applications involving SCNT
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 19px;">Future Applications for Hanft Transfers **
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Cloning humans is something that has never been done (although people have claimed to). The possibilities with cloning humans are absolutely enormous. This idea of cloning people is very appealing to some. For example it would give lesbian and gay couples a chance to have an offspring that has one of their genetic material opposed to adopting a child with none of their genetic material. Also, cloning people would give couples who can’t reproduce (similar to a mule, people who are infertile) a chance to do the same thing, produce an offspring with at least one of there genetic material. Additionally, if a family member such as a child suddenly died you could take a sample of their DNA and threw SCNT make an identical clone of that person to almost bring back the dead from life, similar things could be done with deceased pets. (The idea of cloning people is an extremely delicate and argued about topic along with stem cells and SCNT. People constantly argue over whether or not it is ethical to play god and start creating and cloning people. Here at Hanft Transfers we are pro human cloning and look forward to the advantages it will have in the future)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Bringing back extinct species is something here at Hanft Transfers that were are actively working on. Do to the recently found woolly mammoth carcass found we here at Hanft Transfers truly believe that the there are DNA samples that can be taken from it that are sufficient enough to use those samples combined with an elephant egg cell and elephant surrogate to produce a real live woolly mammoth. This could also be replicated with other extinct species that we still have good DNA samples from. The same theory of bringing back something from extinction can be applied to humans as well. For examples if you collect a DNA sample from someone you just recently died you could make a clone of them. However the clone wouldn’t be exactly the same as the deceased person do to different living conditions, different ways of being raised, and possible genetic mutations you could still clone someone, say Steven Jobs, and his clone would theoretically like Jobs be an extremely smart and talented individual
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Additionally here at Hanft Transfers we hope that one day the entire process of SCNT will be standard and extremely easy and hopefully less expensive. This would allow SCNT to be used much more then it is today. We could increase the number of animals and potential people that we clone each year to benifit society. We also look forward to the new discoveries and application in SCNT that have yet to be found.

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 21px;">Work Cited ** "Blastocyst" image. 21 January 2011. web. <[]> "Cloning." //genome.gov.// 22 January 2011. web.< [|http://www.genome.gov/25020028#top]> "Cloning-Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer." //rhtp.org.// 22 //January. 2011 <//[]> "Dolly the Sheep." image. 22 January.web. < []> "Dolly the Sheep and Genetically Modified Organisms." //american.edu.// 22 January 2011.web.< []> "FDA Approves Use of Cloned Animcals as Food." //Animallawcoalation.com.// 22 January 2011. web.< []> "Hans Spemann." //thinkquest.org.// 21 January 2011. web.<[]> "History of Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (Cloning)." //godandscience.org//. 20 January. 2011 < []> "Pros and Cons of Cloning." //Cloneorgans.com.// 21 January. 2011.web < []> "Reproductive Cloning Arguments Pro and Con." //geneticsandsociety.org.// 22 January. 2011. web.< []> "Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer." //php.med.unsw.edu.// 22 January. 2011. web. < [|http://php.med.unsw.edu.au/cellbiology/index.php?title=Group_10_Project_-_Somatic_Cell_Nuclear_Transfer#Applications_of_SCNT]> "Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer." //titudorancea.org.// 20 January. 2011. web.< []> "Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer Diagram." image. 21 January. web. <[]> "What is Cloning." //genetics.utah.edu.// January 20. 2011.web.< []>