Scientists in Japan are leaders in the development of new technology that could make sperm and eggs from practically any cell in the body. The results could transform human reproduction.
Katsuhiko Hayashi, a developmental geneticist at Osaka University, is working on ways to make what he calls"artificial" eggs and sperm from any cell in the human body.Kosuke Okahara/Kosuke Okahara for NPR
"Applying this kind of technology to the human is really important," Hayashi says."I really, really get excited about that."Through the microscope, the cells in Hayashi's dish look like shimmering silver blobs. They're a type of stem cell known as induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS. Hayashi used mouse eggs like these to do something even more groundbreaking — breed apparently healthy, fertile mice. That sent scientific shock waves around the world and triggered an international race to do the same thing for people.. Within a year, they say they'll be ready to make human eggs they hope to try to fertilize to make human embryos. But the Americans have released few details to back up their claim.
"We use mouse cells and also human cells," Saitou says, though he won't get more specific because he hasn't published the protocol yet in a scientific journal.
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