According to a recent article in the New York Post, Japanese scientists are claiming that they are on the verge of growing human babies in the lab by incubating eggs and sperm in an artificial womb. The researchers at Kyushu University aim to mass-produce eggs and sperm in the lab from ordinary human cells.
A study published in March in the journal Nature, demonstrated that the team transformed male mice’s skin cells into pluripotent stem cells. Researchers then grew these cells and treated them with a drug that converted the male rodent stem cells into female cells, thereby producing functional egg cells. Fertilizing those eggs and implanting this baby blueprint into female mice, meanwhile, resulted in the artificial conception of male mice. The following photo shows the results;
Only 1% of the embryos grew into live mouse pups, so the artificial baby making method is still in its embryonic stage. The researchers estimate that it would take around half a decade to replicate egg-like cell production in humans, and 10-20 years of testing to ensure this artificial reproductive method is safe for use in clinics
The study has important implications for human reproduction and is an important step in both stem cell and reproductive biology. The idea of lab-grown infants is not without its legal and ethical concerns. Therefore, will have to be considered as research and progress moves forward.
