Quest to create viable human sex cells in lab progressing rapidly, with huge implications for reproduction
Scientists are just a few years from creating viable human sex cells in the lab, according to an internationally renowned pioneer of the field, who says the advance could open up biology-defying possibilities for reproduction.
Speaking to the Guardian, Prof Katsuhiko Hayashi, a developmental geneticist at the University of Osaka, said rapid progress is being made towards being able to transform adult skin or blood cells into eggs and sperm, a feat of genetic conjury known as in-vitro gametogenesis (IVG).
His own lab is about seven years away from the milestone, he predicts. Other frontrunners include a team at the University of Kyoto and a California-based startup, Conception Biosciences, whose Silicon Valley backers include the OpenAI founder, Sam Altman and whose CEO told the Guardian that growing eggs in the lab “might be the best tool we have to reverse population decline” and could pave the way for human gene editing.
Isnt this just cloning? Like if they grew sperm cells and eggs from my dandruff and combined them
No, it is something different. Cloning creates a another being with the exact same DNA. This would allow people, who can't produce viable sperm/egg cells, to reproduce with their partner. First patients would be infertile men and women.
Would a sperm/egg combo from the same person not be a clone?
The sperm and the egg would contain different copies of the chromosomes. The cell randomly divides its chromosomes when it becomes an egg or sperm. When they merge, two halves of a genome form a full one again. But some chromosomes would be there as doubles, others would be lost. The effect would be the same as incest. Mutations that would be hidden in a healthy cell would emerge.