Somatic cell nuclear transfer in cellular medicine and biopharming

Genome reprogramming of a cell nucleus to an undifferentiated totipotent or pluripotent cell state provides attractive means of obtaining isogenic immunocompatible cells for therapeutic applications and the organoids for diseases modeling and drug testing. As a potent genome reprogramming tool the somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) has pioneered a new era in cellular medicine and biopharming. SCNT is used to generate patient-specific stem cells, thus it avoids dependence on embryos to produce embryonic stem cells (ESCs) which has stern ethical concerns in humans. In addition, SCNT has facilitated the cost effective large scale production of recombinant biomolecules through cloned transgenic or genetically-modified animals.