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In future we may not need women’s eggs to make babies

Published

8 years ago

September 18, 2016

In future we may not need women's eggs to make babies

A group of researchers at the Bath University are envisaging a future where kids will be born from embryos made from skin cells rather than eggs produced by women.

But according to one of the researchers, Dr Perry, caution should be the watch word after the discovery as the reality of the development is still many years away; “Our work challenges the dogma… that only an egg cell fertilised with a sperm cell can result in live mammalian birth.

“What we are talking about is different ways of making embryos. Imagine that you could take skin cells and make embryos from them. This would have all kinds of utility.” He added.

Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, an embryologist from The Francis Crick Institute in London, also added that: “I’m not surprised that the authors are excited about this. It is a very interesting paper, and a development that seems good to hear”.

The discovery is important because an embryo is very different to an egg and actually has a lot in common with a skin cell, suggesting that skin cells could one day be fused with sperm to create babies.

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