PRESS RELEASE: FEBRUARY 2, 2004

Subject: Results of first ever attempted embryo transfer of a clone human embryo

Professor Panos Zavos announced to an audience in London on January 17th, 2004 that his team had taken an egg from a 35-year-old woman, inserted her husband's genetic material, and transferred the resulting embryo in her womb. If the attempted embryo transfer and pregnancy was successful, it would result in the birth of a child genetically identical to its father and without any significant genetic contribution from its mother, other than the mitochondrial DNA present in the enucleated oocyte obtained from the mother.

The attempt to create the world's first cloned human being was a bold step taken by Professor Zavos and his team. During the press conference Dr. Zavos said that "he was now waiting to see if the procedure led to a full pregnancy, but that there was a 70-80% chance that would not happen. He stated further "I do not have a pregnancy to announce. Stand-by two or three weeks when we will know more," he cautioned the conference.

During the press conference Dr. Zavos indicated that his team had taken skin cells from the woman's husband, then via extensive tissue culture, they were able to transform the cells into fibroblasts, which they used as the source for SCNT where they fused the fibroblast with an egg from the woman. It was understood, the egg had already had its own genetic material removed (enucleated), so the resulting embryo carried only the nuclear material from the father and therefore genetically identical to the father. As Dr. Zavos stated during the press conference the father could not produce sperm, hence the need for the couple to receive fertility treatment.

Dr. Zavos during the press conference did not provide any details of the woman's origin or the date of the embryo transfer, but confirmed the process did not take place in the UK, US or Europe. He also did not provide any details regarding the procedure. Professor Zavos indicated during the press conference that his team has the expertise and the know-how to monitor the pregnancy and to minimize risk. He went further "they feel quite confident they can execute such an effort," he said.

Professor Zavos in a responsible and professionally correct manner called on world governments to get involved in the cloning process by producing guidelines and adequate restrictions under which it could be carried out by responsible practitioners. "They had better start developing guidelines because it's too late to ban it, it's too late to outlaw it," he said.

PREGNANCY RESULTS

We have recently run quantitative measurements of Beta hCG during the second week and repeated the measurements during the third week following the embryo transfer and the results were negative. The results indicated that no pregnancy resulted from the first ever attempted embryo transfer of a cloned human embryo. The materials and methods used to produce the transferred cloned embryo along with relevant clinical data will be published in a peer reviewed refereed journal as a "Case Report" in the near future. Professor Zavos and his team are dedicated and will continue their efforts in producing more cloned human embryos for reproductive purposes as he stated during his press conference in London: "successful or not, we are going to do another one and another one and another until we succeed."