HONG KONG, Sept 9: The groundbreaking scientists behind Dolly, the world’s first cloned sheep, were on Tuesday presented with the Shaw Prize, the million-dollar award known as the Nobel Prize of the East.

British scientists Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell shared the life science and medical prize for their work in stem cell research with Japanese professor Shinya Yamanaka at a glittering ceremony in Hong Kong.

“(Their work) advances our knowledge of developmental biology and holds great promise for the treatment of human diseases and improvements in agriculture practices,” the award citation said.

The award was one of three million-dollar awards presented on the night by Hong Kong’s chief executive Donald Tsang at the annual ceremony.

Dolly was welcomed as a scientific breakthrough in 1996, but drew criticism from religious groups and pro-life campaigners.

Wilmut said last year he was switching from his method of cloning mammals from adult cells which produced Dolly to Yamanaka’s technique.

The Kyoto University scientist has managed to create stem cells from fragments of skin from mice without using embryos and has worked on recreating the process with human cells.—AFP