Lab-Made Eggs Produce Healthy Mice

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Lab-Made Eggs Produce Healthy Mice

Posted by Soulskill on Friday October 5, 2012 @02:32AM from the built-to-order dept.

ananyo writes "Japanese researchers have coaxed mouse stem cells into becoming viable eggs that produce healthy offspring. Last year, the same team successfully used mouse stem cells to make functional sperm (other groups have produced sperm cells in vitro). The researchers used a cocktail of growth factors to transform stem cells into egg precursors. When they added these egg precursor cells to embryonic ovary tissue that did not contain sex cells, the mixture spontaneously formed ovary-like structures, which they then grafted onto natural ovaries in female mice. After four weeks, the stem-cell-derived cells had matured into oocytes. The team removed the oocytes from the ovaries, fertilized them and transplanted the embryos into foster mothers. The offspring that were produced grew up to be fertile themselves."

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And we move forward by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-05 02:40 · Score: 5, Interesting

Robotic spaceships that produce humans at their destination here we come!
1. Re:And we move forward by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-05 02:47 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  And the caretaker robots that can create healthy human minds.
  We've already invented TV.
2. Re:And we move forward by Aguazul2 · 2012-10-05 03:10 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  If you remember, the Axlotl tanks turned out to be in fact surrogate mothers (check wikipedia). So embedding them in other mice is on the same kind of level as Tleilaxu technology.
3. Re:And we move forward by h4rr4r · 2012-10-05 03:49 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  If the robots can build a colony why waste time building human colonists?
  Just have robotic colonists.
Are they as nutritious as organic mice??? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-05 02:41 · Score: 5, Funny

inquiring Pythons want to know.
Einstein Tesla Baby by badford · 2012-10-05 02:45 · Score: 3, Insightful

Lab Notes: August 12, 2023
Einsla is becoming a remarkable young woman. She speaks 29 languages and has built 7 helper bots from spare parts found around the lab. She even re-engineered her iPhone 15 to send tweets telepathically. Who'd a thunk that stem cell eggs and sperm would be so friggin dope?
Lab ntes : Octobre 54, bleh
Einsla is all-powerful. I must obey. farble-blerp. please get out of my mind. [end of transcript]

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-badford
Parenthood no longer needs to be consensual. by Remus+Shepherd · 2012-10-05 03:06 · Score: 4, Interesting

If you're not sure what practical application this research contributes to, consider this: We can now create genetic offspring of infertile people. More than that, we can now create genetic offspring of people without their knowledge or consent. All we need is a stem cell sample. Note recent research that enables skin cells to be turned into stem cells.
It shouldn't be long before companies are advertising services like 'Have George Clooney's baby' or 'Father Christina Hendricks' child'. That's just the tip of the iceberg. The first child with two daddies -- literally -- is just around the corner.

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Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.
Re:New cloning technique. by blueg3 · 2012-10-05 03:32 · Score: 4, Insightful

That doesn't result in a clone.
Mice hatched from eggs by wiwa · 2012-10-05 04:49 · Score: 5, Funny

My first thought on reading the headline was that they made mice that hatched from eggs. The actual discovery is much less impressive.