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Human Sperm Produced In the Laboratory

Posted by timothy on from the that's-not-starting-from-scratch dept.

duh P3rf3ss3r writes "The BBC is carrying a report from a team of researchers at Newcastle University who claim to have developed a the first 'artificial' human sperm from stem cells. The research, reported in the journal Stem Cells and Development, involved selecting meristematic germ cells from a human embryonic stem cell culture and inducing meiosis, thus producing a haploid gamete. The authors claim that the resulting sperm are fully formed, mature, human sperm cells but the announcement has been greeted with mixed reaction from colleagues who claim the procedure is ethically questionable and that the gametes produced are of inferior levels of maturation."

2 of 368 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Where's the story? by Vectronic · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8138963.stm

  2. Re:I can't believe it's not butter! by blueg3 · · Score: 4, Informative

    It actually turns out that's not true -- if you had nothing but the DNA sequence, you could not (even in theory) construct a human from it. For one, the mitochondria organelles have their own genetics independent of our own. The organelles are inherited directly from the mother's cells. For another, how DNA is used and rendered into proteins, etc. is altered by chemicals that are carried along with the cell. If those are stripped away, information is lost.