Last June 17 marked the 10th year anniversary of the birth of "Dolly the Sheep," the world's first mammal to have been cloned successfully from an adult cell. Her birth gained worldwide attention and opened the door to great possibilities in the world of cloning for animals and humans alike. And although it's been three years now since Dolly's death, she is still remembered fondly. The time is right to look back at what Dolly meant to the world.

Dolly’s arrival into the world was met with great anticipation. She was cloned at the Roslin Institute in Scotland and lived there until her death when she was six. Her birth made headlines worldwide and the technique that brought her into the world – somatic cell nuclear transfer – became famous. Under this technique, a cell is placed in a de-nucleated ovum and the two cells are fused and an embryo develops in their place. She was given the name “Dolly” in honor of singer Dolly Patron and because it was a mammary cell that was cloned.

Although Dolly’s birth was greeted as a great milestone in the annals of medicine and science, it was also a source of some controversy, particularly surrounding the matter of bestowing credit for this achievement. Initial credit went to Ian Wilmut for being the first to write about the work behind the cloning of Dolly the sheep, but his role in the project was disputed from the outset. In March 2006, Wilmut acknowledged that he was not the creator of Dolly and gave most of the credit to Keith Campbell. However, up to this time, there are others trying to take credit for Dolly’s creation.

Although Dolly only lived for six years (she died on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2003), she made a strong impact and left a lasting legacy. Following Dolly’s birth, several other large animals have been cloned, such as horses, bulls and dogs. Experiments are currently going on that explore the feasibility of applying cloning to the preservation of endangered species.

Dolly’s cause of death was officially listed as progressive lung disease. A later autopsy revealed that Dolly died from “Ovine Pulmonary Adenocarcinoma,” which is a common disease among sheep. Scientists who examined her later said that there was no connection between Dolly’s being a clone and her cause of death. Some medical scientists have speculated that Dolly may have suffered from premature again because of shortened “telomeres” in her cells that were passed on from her parent, who was six years old when the genetic material was taken from her. Some scientists have said that Dolly may have been genetically six years old at birth, but this is unsupported scientifically.

Today, ten years after Dolly’s creation, Ian Wilmut, the British scientist who was instrumental in creating Dolly, has a new proposal that seeks to take the science of cloning to the next level. Wilmut proposed research into cloning and gene alteration that will create babies that are free from hereditary diseases. He said that this would be possible by taking an embryo affected by an hereditary disease, removing its stem cells and modifying the specific genetic fault say, for medical conditions such as Huntington's disease or cystic fibrosis. The next step is to clone these cells and use the cloned cells to create a new embryo that is free from disease. This embryo would then be implanted and allowed to develop into a baby.

In a new book, Wilmut said it would be “immoral” for medical scientists not to see the promise and potential of new technology to help families. He said human cloning research is on the verge of taking the science to the next level, especially with the great strides made in the field in recent years.