Professor Ian Wilmut, the Scottish scientists who led the team that created Dolly the sheep ten years ago, decided to embrace a new technology for a non-embryo cell production.

In 1997 Wilmut developed the nuclear transfer cloning technique, which involved creating stem cells from human embryos. The stem cells are the primal cells found in all multi-cellular organisms, which have the potential of differentiating themselves into a diverse range of specialized cell types.

Embryonic stem cells, derived from blastocysts, are derived from the inner cell mass of an early stage embryo. They are capable of turning into any type of cell type, whereas multipotent progenitor cells found in the adult can only be coaxed into forming some tissue types.

In the lab, scientists harvest stem cells from cloned embryos. By producing stem cells that carry the genetic defects of diseases, researchers believe they will be able to understand the complex mechanisms behind incurable human diseases, potentially leading to new cures.

According to BBC, Ian Wilmut decided not to pursue a license to clone human embryos following new research by a Japanese team into coaxing stem cells from the skin cells of mice. The study lead by Professor Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University is due to be published in a scientific journal on Tuesday.

"The work which was described from Japan of using a technique to change cells from a patient directly into stem cells without making an embryo has got so much more potential.” Wilmut said for BBC.

"Even though it's only been described for the mouse, when we were considering which option to pursue, whether to clone or whether to copy the work in Japan, we decided to copy the work in Japan.", he added.

Last year in August Professor Shinya Yamanaka and his colleagues reported that hey have been able to make adult cells act like embryonic stem cells, at least in mice.

Yamanaka and his colleagues found 24 genes that are expressed in early embryos. They found that a combination of four of these cells could make adult cells "pluripotent."