This is INDEED a brave new world

 

Just read the headline, and see if you agree.

Scientists Take First Step to Creating Human Eggs and Sperm in Lab

Really?   The end of this road could be somewhat ... dehumanizing.

" “Healthy eggs and sperm are the product of an extremely complex and error-prone process. Our study pushes the envelope in replicating one of its quintessential features in the culture dish,” said senior author and Wyss Core Faculty member George Church, Ph.D. “We are in an excellent position now to also find the means to steer cells all the way through the remaining steps of meiosis, which would provide a basis for modeling a number of defects, and creating healthy gametes for individuals who can’t efficiently get there by themselves.” Church is also Professor of Genetics at HMS and Professor of Health Sciences and Technology at Harvard and MIT. He also leads the Wyss Institute’s Synthetic Biology Platform."

The article is somewhat long, and fairly technical, but the results are quite intriguing. Are fully test-tube babies on the way?

Get the details:

Reference: Smela MP, Adams J, Ma C, et al. Initiation of meiosis from human iPSCs under defined conditions through identification of regulatory factors. Science Advances 11(33):eadu0384. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adu0384