Here is an interesting story today ... two (or just one ... or more than two?) biological parent kids on order ...
Biomedical startups are racing to revolutionize the way humans reproduce
Companies are racing to accelerate and commercialize in-vitro gametogenesis, or IVG, which would make human eggs and sperm in the lab from any cell in the body containing anyone's DNA.
...
KRISILOFF: Yeah, so basically, we're trying to turn a type of stem cell called an induced pluripotent stem cell into a human egg, ultimately with the goal - if it's safe - to do it for fertility purposes.
STEIN: And why?
KRISILOFF: Really opens the door, if you can create eggs, to be able to help people have children that otherwise don't have options right now.
STEIN: Like women whose eggs are too old, enabling them to have their own genetically-related kids at any age because induced pluripotent stem cells can be made from just a single cell from anyone's skin or blood. So these lab-grown eggs would have all of their DNA. It's called in vitro gametogenesis, or IVG.
KRISILOFF: My personal biggest interest in it is that it could allow same-sex couples to be able to have biological children together as well. Yeah, I'm gay, and it's something that got me so personally interested in this in the first place.
...
STEIN: Because IVG could create eggs from one of his cells that could make a baby with sperm from his partner - vice versa for lesbian couples. Same goes for trans couples. And they say the company's gotten closer to making IVG a reality than anyone else.
...
HURTADO: These are some of our mini ovaries. These are a few weeks old now.
STEIN: The mini ovaries are combinations of cells the company made to nurture the primordial germ cell-like cells into their next step of development. Another microscope projects what's in that dish onto a screen.
HURTADO: Hopefully what you can appreciate here is you can see our mini ovary, and then you can see a lot of dots that are really red, fluorescent. Each of those cells is a germ cell.
STEIN: A germ cell - a very immature human egg cell.
...
STEIN: Now, the company's only released a few details about their experiments, so independent scientists can't validate their claims, and some are skeptical. Krisiloff acknowledges that a lot more research is needed to prove the company could produce viable eggs that would be safe to use, but he's confident they're on the cusp of success. Already, the work is creating a lot of excitement, but also a lot of concerns.
MARCY DARNOVSKY: This could take us into kind of a "Gattaca" world.
STEIN: Marcy Darnovsky runs the Center for Genetics and Society at Berkeley. She says, combined with new gene-editing techniques, IVG could fuel all kinds of dystopian scenarios, including designer babies.
DARNOVSKY: Combining IVG and genome editing and commercialization, you've really got kind of a toxic stew to create people who are supposedly biologically superior to others. We don't want to pave the road toward any kind of future that looks anything like that.
...
STEIN: But for another perspective, I travel about an hour south to talk with Stanford University bioethicist Hank Greely. ...
GREELY: I'm a fan of the IVG idea. I think it offers the possibility for millions of couples who desperately want to have kids that are genetically half one, half the other, who can't do that now, to have those children.
STEIN: That said, Greely also worries about commercial pressures pushing IVG too fast.
GREELY: Rob, I live in Silicon Valley, where the motto is move fast and break things. Of course it worries me. Happily, the FDA does not want you to move fast and break things, and the FDA has a lot of power. I'm confident the FDA will use that power because we don't think babies are like iPhones.
STEIN: Greely acknowledges that there are lots of possibilities that raise thorny questions, like using cells from children, the elderly, even dead people to make babies, or cells stolen from celebrities to make babies without their consent. A person could even make babies with nothing but their own DNA.
GREELY: Part of me says, you know, why worry about these wild scenarios? Who in the world would do that? And then I think there are 8 billion people in the world. And, you know, there are some rich megalomaniacs out there - we won't name names - who I can imagine might think that was cool.
Companies are racing to accelerate and commercialize in-vitro gametogenesis, or IVG, which would make human eggs and sperm in the lab from any cell in the body containing anyone's DNA.
...
KRISILOFF: Yeah, so basically, we're trying to turn a type of stem cell called an induced pluripotent stem cell into a human egg, ultimately with the goal - if it's safe - to do it for fertility purposes.
STEIN: And why?
KRISILOFF: Really opens the door, if you can create eggs, to be able to help people have children that otherwise don't have options right now.
STEIN: Like women whose eggs are too old, enabling them to have their own genetically-related kids at any age because induced pluripotent stem cells can be made from just a single cell from anyone's skin or blood. So these lab-grown eggs would have all of their DNA. It's called in vitro gametogenesis, or IVG.
KRISILOFF: My personal biggest interest in it is that it could allow same-sex couples to be able to have biological children together as well. Yeah, I'm gay, and it's something that got me so personally interested in this in the first place.
...
STEIN: Because IVG could create eggs from one of his cells that could make a baby with sperm from his partner - vice versa for lesbian couples. Same goes for trans couples. And they say the company's gotten closer to making IVG a reality than anyone else.
...
HURTADO: These are some of our mini ovaries. These are a few weeks old now.
STEIN: The mini ovaries are combinations of cells the company made to nurture the primordial germ cell-like cells into their next step of development. Another microscope projects what's in that dish onto a screen.
HURTADO: Hopefully what you can appreciate here is you can see our mini ovary, and then you can see a lot of dots that are really red, fluorescent. Each of those cells is a germ cell.
STEIN: A germ cell - a very immature human egg cell.
...
STEIN: Now, the company's only released a few details about their experiments, so independent scientists can't validate their claims, and some are skeptical. Krisiloff acknowledges that a lot more research is needed to prove the company could produce viable eggs that would be safe to use, but he's confident they're on the cusp of success. Already, the work is creating a lot of excitement, but also a lot of concerns.
MARCY DARNOVSKY: This could take us into kind of a "Gattaca" world.
STEIN: Marcy Darnovsky runs the Center for Genetics and Society at Berkeley. She says, combined with new gene-editing techniques, IVG could fuel all kinds of dystopian scenarios, including designer babies.
DARNOVSKY: Combining IVG and genome editing and commercialization, you've really got kind of a toxic stew to create people who are supposedly biologically superior to others. We don't want to pave the road toward any kind of future that looks anything like that.
...
STEIN: But for another perspective, I travel about an hour south to talk with Stanford University bioethicist Hank Greely. ...
GREELY: I'm a fan of the IVG idea. I think it offers the possibility for millions of couples who desperately want to have kids that are genetically half one, half the other, who can't do that now, to have those children.
STEIN: That said, Greely also worries about commercial pressures pushing IVG too fast.
GREELY: Rob, I live in Silicon Valley, where the motto is move fast and break things. Of course it worries me. Happily, the FDA does not want you to move fast and break things, and the FDA has a lot of power. I'm confident the FDA will use that power because we don't think babies are like iPhones.
STEIN: Greely acknowledges that there are lots of possibilities that raise thorny questions, like using cells from children, the elderly, even dead people to make babies, or cells stolen from celebrities to make babies without their consent. A person could even make babies with nothing but their own DNA.
GREELY: Part of me says, you know, why worry about these wild scenarios? Who in the world would do that? And then I think there are 8 billion people in the world. And, you know, there are some rich megalomaniacs out there - we won't name names - who I can imagine might think that was cool.
COMPANY WEB PAGE: https://conception.bio/
Gassho, J
stlah
Comment