LONDON, England (CNN) -- Ever wanted to be a new you? Recent developments in cloning mean that day might be possible without therapy, a new diet or fitness regime.
Earlier this week a team in the U.S. led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon National Primate Research Center, announced they had created the first cloned monkey embryo and extracted stem cells from it.
While a scientific breakthrough in its own right, it also brings the possibility of curing genetic diseases, growing new organs and even making a carbon copy of human beings one step closer.
There is still a long way to go, with many technical and ethical dilemmas to overcome. The advancements in cloning have been slow and painstaking and prior claims to have developed cloned human cells found to be false; Dolly the sheep -- the first cloned animal -- was created over 10 years ago, and the only previous claim of human embryo cloning by South Korean scientist Woo Suk Hwang in 2004, was discredited....
