The “holy grail” which scientists have “been after for years,” according to scientist John Gearhart, has finally been captured, as revealed in a report released on Wednesday which announced that, for the first time in history,  scientists have succeeded at cloning a human embryo.

Shoukhrat Mitalipov, a scientist with Oregon Health and Science University, and a team of researchers harvested eggs from female participants and then removed the majority of DNA, replacing it with genetic material from the skin cells of third parties. It was after this stage that science had previously been halted – getting the eggs to then grow into embryos had been, until now, deemed almost impossible. Yet after seemingly endless attempts, Mitalipov and his team discovered the perfect combination of chemicals, electricity, freshness of eggs, and optimum stage of development to allow the cloned eggs to develop into human embryos. To date, the researchers have been able to cultivate the embryos to the stage where stem cells can, and have been, harvested (the blastocyst stage), and reportedly demonstrated the ability to turn these stem cells into the cells of any other organ, including heart cells, which rhythmically pulse in a petri dish.

The “holy grail” which scientists have “been after for years,” according to scientist John Gearhart, has finally been captured, as revealed in a report released on Wednesday which announced that, for the first time in history,  scientists have succeeded at cloning a human embryo.

Shoukhrat Mitalipov, a scientist with Oregon Health and Science University, and a team of researchers harvested eggs from female participants and then removed the majority of DNA, replacing it with genetic material from the skin cells of third parties. It was after this stage that science had previously been halted – getting the eggs to then grow into embryos had been, until now, deemed almost impossible. Yet after seemingly endless attempts, Mitalipov and his team discovered the perfect combination of chemicals, electricity, freshness of eggs, and optimum stage of development to allow the cloned eggs to develop into human embryos. To date, the researchers have been able to cultivate the embryos to the stage where stem cells can, and have been, harvested (the blastocyst stage), and reportedly demonstrated the ability to turn these stem cells into the cells of any other organ, including heart cells, which rhythmically pulse in a petri dish.