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Iranian biosciences aren?t exactly top of the news agenda these days, so I was interested to read this week that researchers at Tehran?s Royan Institute have "succeeded" in producing what is apparently the Middle East's first cloned sheep.

The sheep died minutes after it was delivered at the institute, which specializes in fertility issues (Royan meaning Embryo in Persian). Still, it was hailed as a landmark achievement after months of unsuccessful cloning attempts also involving cows and mice.

Iran's cloning program reportedly has the blessing of the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as is its research into embryonic stem cells, which has been going on since 2002.

In the Guardian article I read, Reza Samani, the Royan Institute's public affairs officer, said: "We are not yet satisfied with our efforts. We will continue until we produce a clone that survives. We tried with a cow and the process was almost successful, but the gestation was so long that the mother miscarried. Work with the sheep is at a more advanced level."

Meanwhile, the article prompted me to look up the center?s website. On it I read that its scientists have this year published five papers in Iranian journals and 13 in international journals. They?ve presented 8 papers at local conferences, and 21 on the international stage.

A quick glance through some of their completed projects also made interesting reading?differentiation of bone marrow mesenchymal cells into osteoblasts, cardiac transplant of autologous cells and the culture of limbal stem cells in vitro, and their transplant into burned cornea, and so on.

OK, so maybe none of those projects are particularly earth shattering, but in the midst of everything that?s going on these days, somehow reading all this on the institute?s website cheered me up immensely.