You may have seen headlines recently about scientists growing eggs and sperm in a lab. Here is what is actually happening, what it could eventually mean, and what it does not change about how fertility treatment works today.
The technology is called in-vitro gametogenesis, or IVG. The idea is to take adult cells, reprogram them into stem cells, and guide them through the biological process of becoming mature reproductive cells. Eggs or sperm, created without surgical retrieval or egg donation.
Professor Katsuhiko Hayashi at the University of Osaka, alongside teams at the University of Kyoto, has been doing the most prominent academic work in this field. Conception Biosciences in California, backed by investors including Sam Altman, is working on the commercial side. Progress in mice has been significant. Human application is a different challenge entirely.
The potential use cases are genuinely compelling. Patients who cannot produce their own eggs, those affected by cancer treatment, older patients, and same-sex couples who want a biological connection to their children are all groups for whom IVG could eventually open doors that are currently closed.
But here is the honest picture: chromosomally stable human eggs have not yet been reliably produced in laboratory conditions. UK regulations do not currently allow lab-grown gametes in fertility treatment. This is at minimum a decade-long development pathway, and that is if the science cooperates.
What IVG would not change is everything that happens after an egg exists. Fertilisation, embryo development, embryo cryopreservation, cryogenic storage, vitrification, and transfer are all still essential. The fertility infrastructure that supports IVF treatment today does not become redundant if IVG succeeds. It becomes more important.
Interesting story from a science and infrastructure perspective. Worth following.
Original Guardian piece:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jul/05/lab-grown-sperm-and-eggs-scientists-reproduction
For context, this piece comes from Cryolab, a UK supplier of cryogenic storage IVF equipment and consumables to fertility clinics. (cryolab.co.uk)
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