The cutting edge of China's cloning research was on display yesterday at a Shanghai seminar where two scientists outlined their plans to use simple cells to grow complex organs and carry out reconstructive surgery.

Li Linsong, a professor with the Stem Cell Research Center of Peking University, reported that his group has already cloned an elementary gland and expects to produce a more-advanced human organ within the next five years.

And Cao Yilin, a Shanghai researcher who is also head of the Laboratory of Soft Tissue Engineering at America's University of Massachusetts, announced he is only "a step away" from working out a reconstructive surgery technique that could replace the need for artificial appliances by triggering cloned cells into repairing damage from accidents and burns.

The comments on cloning -- the science of using a single cell to create a colony of genetically identical cells -- came during the second day of the city's "Biotechnology and Pharmacology Seminar" at ShanghaiMart.

Li's project, using a 40 million yuan (US$4.8 million) government grant, focuses on cloning human organs from stem cells, which are unspecialized structures that can develop into specific forms such as blood cells.

Li's group has found a way to introduce genetic material into a stem cell which could cause it to grow into a full organ that would then be transplanted into a human body.

So far Li has successfully caused human stem cells to produce a glandular structure that secretes chemicals useful in treating diabetes and Parkinson's disease.

He admits he faces major challenges in creating a more-complex organ such as a liver, including how to overcome rejection by the body's immune system.

Li is also investigating a technique for introducing human cells into an animal's embryo to produce human organs for use in transplants.

Cao, on the other hand, said he is closer to putting his research into practical use.

The director of the Shanghai Key Laboratory for Tissue Engineering reported that he's successfully completed a series of experiments in which he grew soft tissues and bones inside animals from a single cell.

Working with 30 million yuan in government funding, Cao believes his discoveries can be used to advance reconstructive surgery in humans by causing a cell to produce soft tissue.

The tissue would replicate itself in molds shaped like the needed body part, such as an ear or a joint. After being attached to the human, the mold would later decompose and fall away.

The researcher attracted media attention earlier this year when he used the technique to "grow" a human-shaped ear from a single rabbit cell and attach it to the head of a rabbit.

(Eastday.com.cn 03/30/2001)