Human Sperm, Egg Cells Mass-Generated using iPS

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Kyoto University scientists have successfully mass-generated male and female primitive germ cells from human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, amplifying their numbers over 10 billion times from the initial culture stage. This breakthrough, published in the journal Nature, is expected to accelerate research in reproductive biology. However, researchers acknowledge the need to address several hurdles before advancing to practical applications. Ethical concerns have been raised regarding the potential for mutations due to excessive cell divisions, although current efforts focus solely on research rather than human reproduction. The study primarily involves the creation of pre-germ cells, not fully developed eggs or sperm, which clarifies the scope of the research.
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Kyoto University scientists mass-generate cells for sperm, eggs using human iPS​

The research, published in the online edition of the British science journal Nature on Monday, amplified the number of male and female primitive germ cells over 10 billion times from their initial culture stage.

"(The findings) will expedite the pace of research," said Michinori Saito, a professor at Kyoto University and one of the research team members, noting at the same time that they still need to clear hurdles in several areas to achieve such a goal.

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20240521/p2g/00m/0sc/001000c

I could not find the Nature research article.
Found it (the article has wrong reference):
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aat1674

Cheers,
Tom
 
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Greg Bernhardt said:
Interesting, but any ethical concerns here?
To many cell divisions can lead to mutations arising in the cell lines generating the germ cells. This is not very important at this point because they only want to use them for research, not make new people. Making humans would probably require a lot of safe guards about this.

I glanced at the article and it seems to be about making pre-germ cells (not yet eggs or sperm) from iPS (induced Pluripotent Stem cells) cells.
I did not think this was clear in the first post.
 
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