George Church is known for pushing the boundaries of biology. The Harvard University geneticist played a key role in developing technologies to read and edit genes and has made waves with his proposal to resurrect the extinct woolly mammoth. Now one of his latest projects could have enormous implications for how humans reproduce.
Church’s lab at the Wyss Institute of Harvard is one of a handful around the globe trying to coax adult stem cells, derived from blood or skin, to become human eggs capable of forming an embryo. They haven’t figured out how to do that just yet, but Church and his colleagues say they’ve taken an important step: growing miniature human ovaries in a dish, complete with the vital cells normally needed to support and nourish an egg.
Such an advance would hold numerous possibilities. The eggs and miniature ovaries could spur research into conditions like infertility and ovarian cancer, and help scientists make sure that pharmaceutical drugs don’t impair fertility. Longer-term, lab-grown eggs could help infertile women have children of their own — even during menopause or into older age. With further refinement, the technique may allow same-sex couples to have biological children by making eggs from male stem cells or sperm from female stem cells.
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