Creator of Dolly the Sheep Ian Wilmut dies aged 79

File photo dated 9/4/2003 of Professor Ian Wilmut with Dolly the sheep on display in the National Museums of Scotland. Tributes have been paid to the scientist who led the team which cloned Dolly the sheep 27 years ago after he died at the age of 79. Professor Sir Ian was part of a team at the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh which successfully cloned Dolly in 1996. Issue date: Monday September 11, 2023. PA Photo. See PA story DEATH Wilmut. Photo credit should read: Maurice McDonald/PA Wire — Dolly was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, and her birth in 1996 was a major scientific breakthrough(Picture: PA)

The scientists behind the world’s first cloned mammal, Dolly the Sheep, has died at the age of 79.

Professor Sir Ian Wilmut was a British embryologist and best known as the leader of the research group that cloned a mammal from an adult somatic cell, a Finnish Dorset lamb named Dolly.

He was appointed OBE in 1999 for services to embryo development and knighted in the 2008.

Dolly was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell, and her birth in 1996 was a major scientific breakthrough.

Sir Wilmut is considered a pioneer in the field of cloning and his work has had a profound impact on our understanding of genetics and biology.

He studied animal science at the University of Edinburgh and then went on to do a PhD in reproductive physiology at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh.

In 1995, he led a team of scientists who successfully cloned Dolly from the cells of an adult sheep.

Dolly was born the following year and lived for six and a half years, producing six lambs of her own.