Motherless babies created from skin cells could be on the horizon after scientists discovered a method of creating offspring without the need for a female egg. RelatedThree generations of mice have already been created using the technique and are fit and healthy, and now researchers are planning to test the theory using skin cells. It has been thought only an egg cell was capable of reprogramming sperm to allow embryonic development to take place. “Our work challenges that dogma, held since early embryologists first observed mammalian eggs around 1827 and observed fertilisation 50 years later, that only an egg cell fertilised with a sperm cell can result in a live mammalian birth. Although the researchers began with an egg cell, they do not believe it is required to start the same development.

Source: National Post September 15, 2016 16:38 UTC