Newcastle University scientists appear to have created human sperm in the lab - a world first.
They believe their work could ultimately help men with fertility problems to become fathers.
However they do also say that it will be at least five years before the technique is perfected for use in IVF clinics.
The Newcastle team say the sperm were fully mature and mobile.
Professor Karim Nayernia from the team said: "This is an important development as it will allow researchers to study in detail how sperm forms and lead to a better understanding of infertility in men - why it happens and what is causing it ....This understanding could help us develop new ways to help couples suffering infertility so they can have a child which is genetically their own .... It will also allow scientists to study how cells involved in reproduction are affected by toxins, for example, why young boys with leukaemia who undergo chemotherapy can become infertile for life - and possibly lead us to a solution."
However, he stressed that it was never their intention to "produce human life in a dish".
Dr Allan Pacey, a biologist at the University of Sheffield, questioned whether the sperm were fully developed: "The quality of the images is not of sufficiently high resolution and I would need more data. They are early sperm, but functional tests would be needed to know exactly what has been achieved."
Due to existing regulations, the sperm cannot be used for fertility treatment. The Newcastle scientists believe it should be available to help infertile men in around five years time. It would allow thousands of men to father children that are genetically their own, possibly from just a tiny bit of their skin
Some ethical issues have also been raised. Josephine Quintavalle from Comment on Reproductive Ethics said: "This is an example of immoral madness. Perfectly viable human embryos have been destroyed in order to create sperm over which there will be huge questions of their healthiness and viability.....It's taking one life in order to perhaps create another. I'm very much in favour of curing infertility but I don't think you can do whatever you like."
But John Harris, Professor of Bioethics at Manchester University, said: "I don't see any problems with the use of synthetic, or laboratory produced sperm.....They will initially be used to make discoveries about the way sperm are formed and how problems arise, and that will be beneficial. Eventually it will be used to solve male infertility and that will be wholly beneficial. It seems to me this is one of those examples where people are groping around for a problem and there literally isn't one."
The Newcastle team apparently tried to create sperm from stem cells from female embryos but failed! However it may eventually be possible to create eggs from a woman's stem cells, raising the possibility of artificial eggs and sperm being combined to create children in a completely artificial manner.
9 July 2009 | 
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