"US scientists have, for the first time, made early-stage human embryos by manipulating DNA taken from people's skin cells and then fertilising it with sperm. The technique could overcome infertility due to old age or disease, by using almost any cell in the body as the starting point for life. It could even allow same-sex couples to have a genetically related child."
"The Oregon Health and Science University research team's technique takes the nucleus which houses a copy of the entire genetic code needed to build the body out of a skin cell. This is then placed inside a donor egg that has been stripped of its genetic instructions. So far, the technique is like the one used to create Dolly the Sheep the world's first cloned mammal born back in 1996."
Researchers removed nuclei from human skin cells and placed them into donor eggs that had their own genetic material removed. The team induced the eggs to discard half their chromosomes through a process termed "mitomeiosis" to create functional eggs with correct haploid sets. The study produced 82 functional eggs, some of which were fertilised with sperm and progressed through early embryonic development, though none developed beyond early stages. The technique resembles cloning methods used for Dolly the Sheep and may eventually enable fertility treatments for older individuals, disease-related infertility, or genetically related children for same-sex couples, but requires about a decade of refinement.
Read at www.bbc.com
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