President Clinton told the heads of executive departments and agencies across the country Wednesday, including those at Iowa State, that he will not allow the use of federal funds to clone humans.

In a letter, Clinton said “that no federal funds shall be allocated for cloning of human beings.” He mentioned the ban on use of federal funds for research on human embryos, as well.

Curtis Youngs, ISU associate professor of animal science, said the President made an appropriate decree that is consistent with the wishes of the American public. He said most citizens say they would not approve or support the research.

There has been global concern about the potential of cloning humans. Recent reports of successfully cloned sheep and monkeys have heightened concerns.

Meanwhile, a House science and technology subcommittee is holding hearings on the ethics of cloning.

At hearings Wednesday, National Institute of Health Director Harold Varmus told committee members that making human clones for scientific purposes is “offensive.” Still, Varmus did say there might be times when humans could be cloned to fight genetic disorders, though those times would be rare.

Many countries have banned human cloning research, making the background information unavailable for human manipulation, Youngs said.

Even if scientists had access to the technology needed to clone humans, Youngs said he doubts they would be successful. He said he doesn’t know of any incentives to clone humans.

Cloning may be the latest buzz word in science, but some ISU professors have been involved with embryonic and genetic research for several years.

The idea to clone mammals has been around for at least 10 years. The method of splitting embryos and artificially producing twins has been around for 15 years, Youngs said. ISU labs have all of the equipment necessary to clone, but no labs are currently working on any cloning projects. However, funds for a grant to research animal cloning at ISU are pending.

Dennis Marple, animal science department chairman, said the research for cloning may be used at ISU.

“I’m excited about the technology and what it means for the livestock industry,” Marple said. “I look forward to seeing the new related technology evolve.”

Youngs works to understand the pre-implantation of embryos, the one-to-10-day old embryos that have not attached to the uterine wall. He works with in-vitro fertilization in petri dishes with animals such as sheep, goats, cattle and pigs. The embryos are frozen and stored in embryo banks. Animals with superior genetics can be created and raised by surrogate females.

Youngs hopes to understand and improve the survival of embryos. This work could benefit Iowa livestock producers by maintaining greater female productivity and reducing the number of females needed to maintain current output, he said.

Every time a species or a breed is lost, valuable genetics may also be lost, Youngs said. Researchers are able to save the genetically elite characteristics of these animals when they intervene with genetic development to control the benefits.

For the last 10 years, Chris Tuggle, an ISU associate professor of animal science, has worked with transgenetic mice. His work takes foreign genes from one organism and places them into the mice. Transgenetic mice serve as research models to show how genes will be expressed in larger animals.

Transgenetic research is also used with large animals.

With transgenetics, an animal may produce the protein in blood that a hemophiliac would need. Using animals for blood products helps alleviate the risk of human disease.

In addition, growth genes could be injected into animals to make them produce hormones that will make them larger and leaner. The use of genes would alleviate the need to periodically inject the animals with hormones.

“I can see the advantage of cloning would decrease the variation from animal to animal for certain experiments,” Tuggle said.

Cloning also allows fewer animals to be used for experiments because the varieties will be reduced. Another advantage of cloning is that it makes experimental results easier to see because the changes can be attributed to the experiment and not genetic variability.

A potential problem with cloning animals is decreased resistibility to disease, Tuggle said. Animals with the same genetic makeup have the same immune systems and are susceptible to all the same diseases.