MDNews - Greater Kansas

COVER FEATURE JAMES ROBL, PH.D. Engineered Future A Genetically P ICTURE THIS: YOUR 17-year-old son has just been carted off the football field after being hit and landing awkwardly while trying to score a touchdown. You rush to the hospital, fearing the worst. You sit in James Robl, Ph.D. the waiting room for hours, and then the doctor comes out with the news: "Your son has experienced a serious spinal cord injury, and he will never walk again." Twenty-fi ve years ago, this is where the story would have ended. That 17-year-old football player would never take another step. In the not-too-distant future, however, this story could have a happy ending, thanks to two cows named George and Charlie and the man who helped create them, James Robl, Ph.D. Cloning Cows As a young student in the early 1980s, Dr. Robl read reports that demonstrated the success of the fi rst genetically engi- neered mice and was immediately drawn to the genetic engineering and cloning fi eld. Dr. Robl, who was born and raised in Claf lin, KS, earned a bachelor's degree in biology and a master's degree in reproductive physiology from Kansas State University, then spent the next four years studying reproductive biology at the University of Illinois, where he earned his doctorate degree in reproductive physiol- ogy. From 1983 to 1985, Dr. Robl served as a research associate in the department of animal science at the University of Wisconsin, where he earned his postdoc- torate degree in developmental biology. In 1985, Dr. Robl took a job as assistant professor in the department of veterinary and animal sciences at the University of Massachusetts. In addition to teaching, he conducted research on animal cloning and genetic engineering technologies, including cloning embryos, also known as therapeutic cloning. Dr. Robl continued to study therapeu- tic cloning amid reports that cloning research consisted of falsifi ed data. The scientifi c community was so skeptical

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