For the first time in the UK, an embryo has been created from a single parent. In a press briefing at the British Association festival of science, Paul de Sousa, a researcher at the Roslin Institute which cloned Dolly the sheep, said that his team had created so-called parthenotes, which are early-stage embryos that are made from a single egg, without sperm, reported the Guardian newspaper.
The move has further dismayed pro-life groups and Christian medical agencies, who believe that the modern advances in stem cell research are leading to a decline in ethical values.
Six parthenotes have been made so far by taking donated eggs from women that were going through sterilisation. An electric shock was given to the egg to make them divide. The intention was to harvest stem cells for the parthenotes, said Dr De Sousa, but the team had not been successful yet.
Embryonic cells are the master cells of the body that can turn into any tissue in the body. They can be harvested in the form of a ball of cells called balstocyst when the embryo is just a few days old.
Scientists say that they want to use the cells for research to develop treatments for many diseases, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
The human parthenotes would never be implanted into a womb, said Dr Sousa. This is outlawed by his research license.
Though researchers in the US have created human parthenotes before, they have proved successful in extracting stem cells.
This week has also seen the Human Fertilisation and Embryology uplift its ban on creating a human embryo with genetic input from three parents.
