Ian Wilmut, the scientist who was one of the leaders of the team that cloned Dolly the sheep in the 1990s, has died. He was 79.
Wilmut was a member of the team that managed to clone a sheep from one cell from the mammary gland of a dead adult sheep, creating a genetically identical animal. Solly, as the clone was known, was born in 1996.
The breakthrough was thanks in large part to Wilmut’s work on stem cells. His work has also laid the foundation for the creation of a field of medicine called ‘regenerative’ medicine, which helps the body repair damaged and aging tissue.
While the cloning of Dolly was not the paradigm shift that many both feared and hoped it would be, Wilmut’s work will nevertheless be remembered for the scientific breakthrough that it was.
Wilmut was knighted in 2008.