Friends who have studied junior high school biology will most likely be familiar with the world’s first cloned sheep, “Dolly” the sheep, and its “father” is Ian Wilmut, a great scientist. Now, after 79 years, he passed away recently. The University of Edinburgh in the UK issued an obituary on the 11th, saying that Ian Wilmut, the "father of sheep cloning" and a famous expert in embryology and regenerative medicine, died of illness on September 10 at the age of 79.
The team led by Wilmut at the Roslin Institute created the world's first somatic cloned mammal, Dolly the sheep, in 1996. This achievement caused a huge sensation and is still affecting many research efforts in fields such as regenerative medicine.
In addition to publishing papers in international academic journals such as Nature and Science, Wilmut has also written many books such as "After Dolly: The Use and Misuse of Human Cloning Technology".
Wilmut retired from the University of Edinburgh in 2012, In 2018, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and announced support for research projects on Parkinson's disease Peter Matheson, the vice-chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, said in his obituary that Wilmut was a "giant in science" and that it was deeply saddened to learn of his death.