The debate surrounding the use of embryonic stem cells that can differentiate to form any type of cell arises because they need to be derived from a fertilised embryo - something that many religious groups are opposed to.

The new technique has used a modification of a technique known as 'somatic cell nuclear transfer ' (SCNT) to combine the genetic material from a masque monkey's skin cell with an egg to create stem cells that had identical nuclear DNA to the donor cell.

The approach could lead to viable alternatives that avoid many of the ethical issues generating 'embryonic' stem cells from unfertilised eggs and genetic material from other cells.

While SCNT has been used to successfully create embryonic stem cells from mice, previous attempts to use the technique to create primate embryonic stem cell lines have failed.

The new research has been published as an advanced online publication in the journal Nature by scientists from the Oregan Health & Science University (OHSU), US.

Due to the nature of the work, the paper was only published after the results had been verified by researchers from Monash University who have also published their results in Nature .

The procedure used in this study is similar to that proposed by Dr Stephen Minger of Imperial College London,UK, to create 'hybrid embryos' where the egg would come from a different species than the nuclear DNA.

While hybrid embryos would enable many stem cell lines to be created for use in drug screening applications, the new technique has the potential to create stem cells for use in regenerative therapy applications as well.

"Using our advanced methods, it is conceivable that years from now, patients could receive therapeutic embryonic stem cells developed from their very own cells meaning that there would be no concerns about transplant rejection," said Dr Shoukhrat Mitalipov, Ph.D., director of the OHSU-based research team and lead author of the study.

"Another noteworthy aspect of this research is that it does not involve the use of fertilised embryos, a topic which has been the source of a significant ethical debate in this country. "

According to Dr Mitalipov the team's success lies in the method for identifying and extracting the nuclei of the eggs being used.

The previous unsuccessful attempts damaged the eggs during the nucleus extraction step, leading to eggs that were not fully functional and failed to divide and develop.

However, even though the group developed two stem cell lines using the technique, their development used over 300 monkey eggs - a success rate of only 0.7 per cent.

"While development of the stem cell lines required hundreds of attempts, this research proves it can be done and will likely lead to refinements which will make the process more efficient and lead to a higher success rate," said Dr Mitalipov.

"This is the next step for our research team as other scientists continue to investigate the promise of stem cell therapies."