Healthy mice have been created using sperm and cells that aren’t quite eggs for the first time. New Scientist questions whether this really brings us any closer to making babies with two biological fathers.
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So they just used sperm and eggs?
Those were the starting points, yes. But instead of using eggs, they used cells that were made by tricking egg cells into dividing – eggs would never normally do this, until after they had been fertilized.
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Will this technique work with other cells?
Probably not – [team member Tony ]Perry himself says the prospect of using a man’s cells in this way are remote. “This is all very speculative and none of it is possible today, and may never be possible,” says Perry.
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So is this discovery useful in any way?
It’s unlikely to pave the way to embryos with two fathers any time soon, but the experiment has told us something particularly interesting: there is more than one path to a healthy embryo.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion and analysis. Read full, original post: Here’s why “two-dad” babies aren’t yet a biological reality
