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AUSTRALIA'S first licences to clone human embryos could be granted as early as this week.A National Health and Medical Research Council panel met in Canberra on Friday to consider applications from two separate research groups. The green light for the controversial science could lead to a cure for such afflictions as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases and type 1 diabetes in less than 10 years.A Monash University team and another based at the Melbourne lab of the Australian Stem Cell Centre have each partnered with Sydney IVF to submit licence requests.The teams want permission to create cloned human embryos using spare eggs left over from fertility treatment.The applications are the first submitted since federal government legislation allowing therapeutic cloning came into a force a year ago.The laws forbid licence holders merging a sperm and an egg to create an embryo.The licences, if granted, will allow only somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), where cloned embryos are created by fusing spare, unfertilised IVF eggs with genetic material - a skin cell, for example - from another person.The cloned embryos would be destroyed once stem cells were collected, and before the embryos reached seven days old.Embryonic stem cells excite researchers and patients because they can be turned into every type of tissue or structure in the body with the ability to replenish damaged or diseased cells.The licence applications are likely to reignite emotional debate among political leaders, religious groups and ethicists.Religious groups and ethicists have raged against the science, saying it it tantamount to the destruction of human life.They are also concerned about where the supply of human eggs will come from.In Australia, human eggs - an essential ingredient in therapeutic cloning - can only be donated by IVF couples who don't need them.The nine-member NHMRC embryo research licensing committee could reach a decision on the applications this week.Both the research teams have applied for $1 million grants under a joint Victorian and NSW government stem-cell research program. Sydney IVF research director Tomas Stojanov said he was confident that both applications - involving staff from Monash and the Australian Stem Cell Centre - would be approved.Sydney IVF has successfully established embryonic stem-cell lines using other methods and already holds five NHMRC licences for other techniques."We're very experienced in this science," he said.Mr Stojanov confirmed the NHMRC contacted him on Friday after the licensing committee meeting in Canberra.He said stem cells produced by therapeutic cloning could offer good opportunity in drug discovery and determining mechanisms of disease."If we did this, we'd be the first in the world," he said."We're very skilful at this and believe we can be the first."Mr Stojanov was quick to point out the research would involve excess human embryos and embryos that were not clinically viable.Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories director Professor Richard Boyd said he was hopeful his team could produce the world's first cloned SCNT embryos.The team would "see the world in our rear-vision mirrors" if they received Federal Government approval, he said.An NHMRC spokeswoman confirmed the licensing committee was considering "a number of applications".But it could not say when a decision would be made.As in the days of Noah...
