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Cloning Dolly, How and Why?
Biographical sketch:
Name: Keith HS Campbell, BSc DPhil
DOB: 23rd May 1954
Dr Keith H. S. Campbell is a cell biologist/embryologist with 26 years scientific experience 17 of which have been in the field of cell growth and differentiation including 12 years working with early embryos. After first qualifying as a Medical laboratory Technologist specialising in Medical Microbiology, he attended Queen Elizabeth College London where he obtained a BSc (Hon's) in Microbiology. During these studies Keith initiated his interests in the cell cycle and cellular growth. Following brief locum positions, firstly as Chief Medical Laboratory Technologist in the Yemen and then on a program to eradicate Dutch Elm Disease in a region of England (The Alfriston Valley) Keith joined the Marie Curie Institute. The Marie Curie Foundation funds basic research into the underlying causes and mechanisms of cancer. Here his interests in cellular growth and differentiation increased. In 1983 Keith was awarded the Marie Curie Research Scholarship. Using this opportunity he attended the University of Sussex as a postgraduate student to continue his studies on cell growth and differentiation. There he studied the cytoplasmic mechanisms that control the segregation of genetic material during the development of amphibian eggs, early embryos and during cell growth and division in yeast. In particular the control of nuclear behaviour by cytoplasmic factors and the ubiquitous nature of such factors in eucaryotic cell types. Keith was awarded a D.Phil. for his thesis titled "Aspects of cell cycle control in Yeast and Xenopus".
On completion of these postgraduate studies Keith moved to Scotland to continue his work on the control of cell growth and differentiation. Following two postdoctoral positions he joined the Roslin Institute in 1991 where he applied his previous experience to the production of mammalian embryos by nuclear transfer. In 1995 this research led to the birth of 'MEGAN' and 'MORAG', two Welsh Mountain lambs. These were the first mammals to be 'cloned' from cultured differentiated cells (Nature 380:64-66, 1996). In 1996 these experiments were repeated and extended resulting in the birth of 'DOLLY', the first mammal to be 'cloned' from an adult derived somatic cell (Nature 385: 810-813, 1997).
The aims of all of these studies were twofold, firstly to understand the basic mechanisms underlying cellular differentiation and secondly to provide a means for the precise genetic modification of farm animal species. Keith's work, in collaborative studies with PPL Therapeutics, resulted in the birth of 'POLLY' the first transgenic mammal to be produced by nuclear transfer from a cell line genetically modified in culture (Science 278:2130-2133, 1997).
Previously a consultant for PPL Therapeutics (a company producing human therapeutic proteins in the milk of transgenic farm animals), Keith left the Roslin institute in July 1997 to become Head of Embryology at PPL. His overall aims were to accelerate the benefits of transgenic technology in the field of human medicine and to further understand the mechanisms underlying embryo development and cellular differentiation, more specifically, the development of methods for gene targeting in livestock and methods for the production of cloned pigs for Xenotransplantation. Whilst at PPL a number of transgenic animals were produced, in July 1999 the first gene targeted lambs (Cupid and Diana) were born (Nature 405: 1066-1069 (2000) and then in March 2000, the World's first piglets cloned from somatic cells (Nature 407:505-509 (2000) The Second Creation- Dolly and the Age of Biological Control, by Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell, and Colin Tudge, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2000
In November 1999, Keith left PPL therapeutics to become Professor of Animal Development at the University of Nottingham. Here he continues to research into the basic mechanisms underlying development and differentiation, uses transgenic animals as models for research and pursues interests in therapeutic stem cells and the cell cycle.
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