Shoukhrat Mitalipov Explained

Shoukhrat Mitalipov (Russian: Шухрат Музапарович Миталипов;[1] born 1961)[2] is an American biologist who heads the Center for Embryonic Cell and Gene Therapy at the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland.[3] He is a well known pioneer of many nuclear transplantation studies and was named in 2013 by journal Nature as "the cloning chief". Mitalipov is also a godfather of a gene therapy, known as mitochondrial replacement therapy, that prevents inheritance of mitochondrial diseases. He discovered a new way of creating human stem cells from skin cells.[3] [4]

Shoukhrat Mitalipov
Birth Date:1961
Birth Place:Almaty, Kazakh SSR, USSR
Citizenship:American
Nationality:Uyghur
Workplaces:Utah State University, Oregon Health and Science University
Alma Mater:Timiryazev Agricultural Academy Research Centre of Medical Genetics
Doctoral Students:Nuria Martí Gutiérrez

Early life

Mitalipov was born in 1961 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, then part of the Soviet Union.[3] He is of Uyghur ancestry.[5] He served two years in Soviet military, beginning in 1979, as an army radio technician.[5]

Education

After the military, Mitalipov studied genetics at the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy in Moscow and also played blues guitar in a cover band to pay the bills.[3] After his graduation from the academy, he worked for a short time as the chief livestock specialist in a kolkhoz in the Yaroslavl region.[6] He received his master's degree in 1989.[3] He earned his PhD in developmental and stem cell biology from the Research Centre of Medical Genetics in Moscow.[3] After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 funding for stem cell research was scarce, so Mitalipov applied for and won a fellowship at Utah State University in 1995.[3] He started working at the Oregon National Primate Research Center in 1998, where he could work with monkeys, which share 98% of their DNA with humans; at Utah State Mitalipov had worked with cow DNA.[3]

Breakthroughs

A therapy for mitochondrial diseases that Mitalipov discovered, the "spindle transfer" technique, involves removing the nucleus from a human egg and placing it into another.[2] [3] If the egg is fertilized, in genetic terms it would have three parents.[3] Mitalipov has successfully bred "three-parent" rhesus macaques.[3] The possibility of using the procedure on human eggs has raised safety and ethics questions.[3]

In May 2013, Mitalipov and his team published a study in Cell that describes a new process for creating human stem cells from skin cells.[4] The stem cell discovery made several journals' "Top 10" scientific breakthrough lists in 2013, including Nature, Science, Time, Discover, National Geographic and The Week.[4]

In August 2017, Mitalipov's collaborative work with the Institute for Basic Science, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, Seoul National University, BGI-Shenzhen and BGI-Qingdao, was published in Nature.[7] performed the first known successful attempt at genetically correcting mutant human embryos, using the CRISPR/Cas9 gene modifying tool.

Mitalipov and his team experimented upon a larger number of human embryos carrying a genetic defect causing heart disease. They demonstrated the possibility of safely and efficiently correcting the defective gene that cause inherited heart disease.[8]

Honors and awards

Salient publications

— Widely cited including by:

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. https://tengrinews.kz/science/uchenyiy-kazahstana-pervyiy-mire-sozdal-obezyanu-mutanta-205270/ Ученый из Казахстана первый в мире создал обезьяну-мутанта – новости науки | Tengrinews
  2. News: His Fertility Advance Draws Ire . March 17, 2014 . Tavernise . Sabrina . . March 4, 2015.
  3. News: Splice of Life . Moore . Elizabeth Armstrong . September 17, 2014 . . 12 . March 4, 2015.
  4. Web site: About Us . Center for Embryonic Cell and Gene Therapy . March 4, 2015.
  5. News: Oregon Stem-cell Groundbreaker Stirs International Frenzy with Cloning Advance . June 2, 2013 . Budnick . Nick . . March 4, 2015.
  6. Web site: Тонкая работа. Астахова. Алла. 12 August 2017. Блог о здравоохранении. Russian.
  7. 10.1038/nature23305 . 548 . Correction of a pathogenic gene mutation in human embryos . 2017 . Nature . 413–419 . Ma . Hong . Marti-Gutierrez . Nuria . Park . Sang-Wook . Wu . Jun . Lee . Yeonmi . Suzuki . Keiichiro . Koski . Amy . Ji . Dongmei . Hayama . Tomonari . Ahmed . Riffat . Darby . Hayley . Van Dyken . Crystal . Li . Ying . Kang . Eunju . Park . A.-Reum . Kim . Daesik . Kim . Sang-Tae . Gong . Jianhui . Gu . Ying . Xu . Xun . Battaglia . David . Krieg . Sacha A. . Lee . David M. . Wu . Diana H. . Wolf . Don P. . Heitner . Stephen B. . Carlos Izpisua Belmonte . Juan . Amato . Paula . Kim . Jin-Soo . Kaul . Sanjiv . Mitalipov . Shoukhrat . 7668 . 28783728. free . 2017Natur.548..413M .
  8. Web site: First human embryos edited in U.S., using CRISPR. Connor. Steve. MIT Technology Review. en. 2019-02-17.
  9. Web site: Shoukhrat Mitalipov, PhD OHSU People. People. Oregon Health & Science University. Oregon Health & Science University. en. 2019-03-25.