I asked veteran Nature reporter David Cyranoski what he had to leave out of his recent article that might interest Nature Reports Stem Cells Readers. Here’s what he had to say:

They didnt use the OOsight imaging system that the Oregonians thought so crucial. (See Nature and NRSC stories on cloning monkey stem cells) They DID use

Hoechst, but they tried to minimize the UV exposure by using a very narrow

beam focused on just where they expected teh spindle to be. They did not

expose the whole cell. So, they did try to limit damage that Mitalipov was

worried about. Also, they didnt take too much cytopolasm or time.

If the first polar body wasn’t in the near vicinity fo the spindle, they left

it in there. He [interview at Stemagen] said that there is no concern of the first polar body

creating a parthenote unless it is injected (ie, it cant merely fuse). He

focused on getting the whole thing over with very quickly. There seems to be

a trade-off between trying to treat the cell nicely (by not using Hoechst,

eg) and trying to do it quickly (use Hoechst, but get in and out).