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[MEXICO CITY] After five years of planning by scientists and three years of political wrangling about a controversial proposed law covering cloning and research on human embryos, Mexican president Vicente Fox last week approved the creation of the National Genomic Medicine Institute (INMEGEN).

Unique in Latin America, the INMEGEN will research the genetic basis for some of Mexico's greatest health problems - including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and obesity - and potential therapies targeting these conditions.


"We now join the nations using science and high technology to protect their populations' health," said Fox. "We cannot afford the luxury of not joining this knowledge revolution because the health and wellbeing of future generations is at stake."


In April, both houses of the Mexican parliament approved a law giving the green light to INMEGEN. The new law does not contain any bans on therapeutic cloning or research using human embryos, although legislators of president Fox's conservative National Action Party (PAN) had pushed for these to be included.


However, Gerardo Jimenez Sanchez, director of INMEGEN, says that INMEGEN's research will not include therapeutic cloning,...

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