Australian scientists produce kangaroo embryos using IVF for first time

Scientists Patricio D Palacios and Andres Gambini from the University of Queensland. Researchers have produced kangaroo embryos through in vitro fertilisation for the first time. Photograph: Dr Andres Gambini/University of Queensland

Scientists have produced kangaroo embryos through in vitro fertilisation for the first time, in a development they say could help conservation of endangered animals.

Australian researchers at the University of Queensland made the eastern grey kangaroo embryos using intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), a technique widely used in human IVF, in which a sperm is injected into a mature egg.