The International Race To Create Human Eggs And Sperm In The Lab

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 29 November 2023

⏱️ 16 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In which we meet the pioneers of one of the most exciting — and controversial — fields of biomedical research: in vitro gametogenesis, or IVG. The goal of IVG is to make unlimited supplies of what Hayashi calls "artificial" eggs and sperm from any cell in the human body. That could let anyone — older, infertile, single, gay, trans — have their own genetically related babies. As such, the field opens up a slew of ethical concerns.

But that isn't stopping researchers from pressing forward.

So, this episode NPR science correspondent Rob Stein gives us a glimpse into the global race to create the first artificial human embryos to see how the competition is unfolding.

Want to hear more cutting-edge technology? Email the show at [email protected].

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:05.0	Hey Shortwaavers, Regina Barbara here and today I've conned
0:09.0	NPR Health Correspondent Rob Stein into hanging out with us.
0:12.0	How you doing, Rob? I'm doing great, Gina. So nice to be back.
0:15.0	You're welcome anytime, Rob. So you're here to talk about one of the hottest but also one of the most controversial fields of biomedical research right now.
0:23.4	That's right. It's called in vitro gametogenesis.
0:27.2	Okay, that sounds intense.
0:28.9	Totally. It's called IVG for short.
0:31.6	IVG sounds a lot like IVF, the fertility treatment.
0:35.0	Bingo, you can sort of think of IVG as a kind of IVF 2.0, but instead of mixing natural
0:41.2	sperm and eggs in a test tube, IVG would make what some scientists call
0:45.8	artificial sperm and eggs in the lab from any cell in anybody's body.
0:51.6	And scientists have been working on this for decades, but it might finally be on the horizon.
0:55.6	Rob, this sounds like science fiction. One of my skin cells could become an egg or sperm.
1:01.0	That's right, sperm and eggs that could create an embryo in the lab just like IVF, but IVG, it would render the biological
1:09.0	clock irrelevant, helping anyone of any age have a genetically related baby same for anyone single
1:16.1	gay trans I mean that sounds really exciting but I can imagine it also might be
1:21.6	controversial absolutely I. VG raises a it also might be controversial.
1:22.6	Absolutely.
1:23.6	IVG raises a long list of ethical, social, legal, and societal concerns, because IVG could
1:30.8	allow people to create babies with very specific genes or combinations of genes
1:35.2	in ways never before possible. I talk about this with Marcy Darnofsky. She runs the
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.