In 1997 the world was taken by surprise with the celebrated birth of Dolly, the sheep cloned from
embryonic cells without participation of a ram. Since then, reproduction biology hasn't ceased advancing in this field. Sophisticated cloning techniques are based on an identical genetic copy of a living being and only
a handful of countries count with the technological, human and economic resources for researching the issue. Since August 6, Argentina belongs to this select group of nine countries capable of cloning animals. With
the birth of Pampa, the first Argentine cattle obtained by cloning a fetal cell (fibroblast extracted from skin), Argentine laboratory BioSidus took the first big step for a project that contemplates, in later phases,
the "creation" of cloned transgenic cattle, capable of producing in their milk the human protein hGH, also known as growth hormone.
The BioSidus initiative uses nuclear transference technology and has demanded six
years of work and over two million dollars in investment. But, perhaps, one of the points that may be overlooked –considering the importance of the news and the results obtained- is the fact that the players involved in
the project created "original solutions" for the specific problems that appeared during the process.
"The lack of experience of our country pushed Argentine scientists, in order to solve many of the technical steps
for the development, to learn, experiment and create original solutions," as was pointed out by the laboratory.
BioSidus underlined, "All of the equipment and drugs used are imported, so we had to replace the
slowness in reception of the materials and their excessive cost with innovative and creative solutions, developing methods and new reagents prepared in our own lab."
Imagination and creativity, added to
scientific-technical quality was, in this case, the key to success. But, the hidden side is that the same newspapers that publish the achievement also show on the following pages the calamity of "social issues".
The
number of poor keeps growing in Argentina, while schools are no longer places for learning but more and more, spaces where children are fed. Education for future generations, for tomorrow's scientists, has taken a back
seat in the midst of a difficult reality which seems to never end. The image of Argentina is turning into a surprising contradiction: record harvests, technological advances and agro food efficiency on one side, and on
the other hunger and marginality.
Perhaps the key for solving the Argentine problem is enclosed in the words of the renowned scientists who have achieved such a major breakthrough. And perhaps some political leader
will read these words by chance and feel touched. For the moment it sounds like a magical formula: developing "innovative and creative solutions."
