Steen Willadsen

Steen Willadsen (born 1943, Copenhagen, Denmark) Danish embryologist who was the first to clone a mammal from embryonic cells in a technique known as nuclear transfer. Willadsen’s studies opened the way for the later development of cloning from adult (mature) mammalian cells and the birth (1996) of Dolly the sheep, the first clone of an adult mammal.

In nuclear transfer, the nucleus from a cell is transplanted into an enucleated egg cell (an egg cell that has had its own nucleus removed). The egg is then implanted into the uterus of a surrogate mother, where it can be carried to term. In Willadsen’s experiments with nuclear transfer, he used nuclei from early sheep embryos as the source of cloning material.

Willadsen received a bachelor’s degree from the Royal Veterinary College of Copenhagen, where he later also earned a doctorate in reproductive physiology. He carried out his groundbreaking research in the 1980s at the British Agricultural Research Council’s Institute of Animal Physiology in Cambridge, England. Willadsen was also known for his work on the development of methods for the cryopreservation of embryos from sheep and cows and for the production of mammalian chimeras (organisms or tissues that contain at least two different sets of DNA).

Willadsen was a recipient of the Pioneer Award of the International Embryo Technology Society (2005).