I didn't clone Dolly the sheep, says prof
(Telegraph)
Updated: 2006-03-09 13:56

The man whose name is synonymous with the cloning of Dolly the sheep admitted yesterday that he was not responsible for the scientific breakthrough that made headline news around the world.

Prof Ian Wilmut told a tribunal hearing in Edinburgh that he had a supervisory, although "not trivial", role in the project. However, he did not develop the technology or carry out the experiments that led to the first clone of an adult animal from a single cell.

He added that he only appeared as the lead author on the paper that described the historic event because of a prior agreement with his colleague, Dr Keith Campbell.

Prof Wilmut, formerly of the Roslin Institute outside Edinburgh, was giving evidence at an employment tribunal at which an Asian colleague is accusing him of racial harassment and bullying.

Dr Prim Singh, 45, a molecular biologist, claims that Prof Wilmut tried to steal his ideas - on work not related to Dolly - and bullied him because of his ethnic origin.

Prof Wilmut said his colleague Dr Campbell deserved "66 per cent" of the credit for the work on Dolly the sheep.

The idea of freezing cells for use in cloning had been devised by Dr Campbell and the vital experiments had been carried out by a fellow scientist, Bill Ritchie.

When asked by Dr Singh's lawyer, Lawrence Davies, whether the statement "I did not create Dolly" was accurate, Prof Wilmut replied: "Yes."

The tribunal continues.