It sounds like science fiction: collecting a person's blood cells, engineering them so they eventually transform into immature sperm, and then incubating them in a tiny pouch grown on a mouse's kidney. But it's not. Today, a team of researchers reported in the journal Cell Stem Cell1 that it has successfully carried out the procedure, with the ultimate goal of making mature human sperm in the laboratory. For now, that goal remains elusive. The lab-grown cells stopped developing at an immature stage. Many hurdles need to be overcome to create mature sperm in the lab, says Eoin Whelan, a reproductive biologist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia who is a member of the research team. But the latest feat is a step in the right direction. In the meantime, the procedure could be used to study early stages of human sperm development and to hunt for reasons behind male infertility. Around 40% of male-infertility cases have no known cause. 'We are approaching this from a basic...
learn more
