Thursday 9 March 2023

Egging Them On: Take 2?

Ketsuhiko Hayashi (Kyushu University, Japan) has created mice with two biological fathers. His team generated eggs, using somatic cells from one of the males (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/mar/08/scientists-create-mice-with-two-fathers-after-making-eggs-from-male-cells). Hayashi predicts it will be possible to create a viable human egg, from male skin cells within ten years. Some other scientists think this timescale is very optimistic (the chromosome number has to be halved and the cytoplasm has to have a reasonable population of mitochondria). If the technology proves successful, it should solve some fertility problems. There's obviously even a possibility that same sex couples could have a biological child together. To achieve this, a viable womb would have to be available. The development of artificial placentae is already quite advanced.

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