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Quest to create viable human sex cells in lab progressing rapidly, with huge implications for reproduction

Scientists are just a few years from creating viable human sex cells in the lab, according to an internationally renowned pioneer of the field, who says the advance could open up biology-defying possibilities for reproduction.

Speaking to the Guardian, Prof Katsuhiko Hayashi, a developmental geneticist at the University of Osaka, said rapid progress is being made towards being able to transform adult skin or blood cells into eggs and sperm, a feat of genetic conjury known as in-vitro gametogenesis (IVG).

His own lab is about seven years away from the milestone, he predicts. Other frontrunners include a team at the University of Kyoto and a California-based startup, Conception Biosciences, whose Silicon Valley backers include the OpenAI founder, Sam Altman and whose CEO told the Guardian that growing eggs in the lab “might be the best tool we have to reverse population decline” and could pave the way for human gene editing.

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[-] School_Lunch@lemmy.world 63 points 4 months ago

I'll never understand people who complain about population decline. It's a good thing. There are too many people here already. My thought on reading the headline was that it could be used in a different way. Everyone could be voluntarily sterilized, and then when they are ready and willing to have a kid they could use this new method to produce sex cells. No more unwanted pregnancies.

[-] Mediocre_Bard@lemmy.world 107 points 4 months ago

Population decline is not a problem for humanity. It is a problem for capitalism.

[-] DeathsEmbrace@lemmy.world 11 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Even worse they're probably looking at the projection and seeing a loss of revenue directly related to population rates. They want more sheep to feed their money making systems.

[-] Onyxonblack@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 months ago

Well of course

[-] IhaveCrabs111@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

People would have lots of kids if each subsequent child didn’t make their existing family’s life much more difficult

[-] iopq@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

People used to have 5+ kids and it was considered fine. It's a cultural thing.

[-] IhaveCrabs111@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

The culture is linked to the income. People have more kids in poorer countries because they typically don’t have a social safety net so the only way to survive in old age is by having lots of children. When the countries become richer and get social security they start having less kids, especially when kids become a financial burden

[-] iopq@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

You're right, we need to dismantle the social safety net

[-] IhaveCrabs111@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

I’m sure many people would see it like this

[-] 4am@lemmy.zip 11 points 4 months ago

Yes, that sounds like a wonderful idea. Let’s put the reproductive future of the species under commercial and/or governmental control.

Both of those things are demonstrably trustworthy, especially in the last decade.

We should cede all control to them. Indeed.

(/s)

Are you a young naive tech bro, or a Nazi Eugenicist? Is there a difference anymore? Have you even thought about what you are saying? That’s an insane take.

[-] School_Lunch@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago

Um I never said anything about giving control to anyone... in fact I specifically said "voluntarily"... you seem like an angry person who is looking for things to be mad about. I'm not sure how you jumped to calling me a nazi.

I have thought about what I'm saying, have you? Unwanted pregnancies are something that by definition nobody wants. All I said was that this could be a way to address that, and you took that simple idea and ran to crazy town with it.

[-] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 months ago

Mandating that girls from age of 12 be inseminated with republican zionist sperm once per year would be more "America first" policy.

[-] iopq@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

Who is going to take care of all the old people? AI?

[-] School_Lunch@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

Who's gonna take care of everyone when earth reaches it's carrying capacity? Which is actually decreasing as we continue to ravage the planet.

Oh yeah who cares? It'll just be all the poor who suffer and die.

[-] iopq@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

The Earth won't reach carrying capacity. Population is projected to max at 9 billion and after that it's going down

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[-] Mothra@mander.xyz 27 points 4 months ago

Ah yes great I feel at ease now, knowing Sam Altman gives the thumbs up to this

That little voice telling me this is a very sharp double edged sword probably doesn't know shit

[-] SGGeorwell@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago

There are so many double-edged swords lying around these days I feel like it’ll be death by a thousand cuts from double-edged swords.

[-] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

I read five lines into the news and thought "oh well shoot, now billionaires are going to try reverse the population decline due to the shitty world they created so that they can continue to generate labour and revenue and make the rest of us fight for resources in an over crowded world". And what do you know Sam Altman was the first shit face to confirm my speculations.

[-] Mothra@mander.xyz 3 points 4 months ago

I'm a bit dull to predict the future. But I can see we already have "ownership" of GMOs available for companies. The "Dire Wolves" that got resurrected that you don't hear about anymore belong to a company. We got plenty of examples of companies marketing something as positive, such as Monsanto saying they actually feed the planet and whatnot. Companies that start open source suddenly turning for profit. And unscrupulous governments and corruption.

And now you have unlocked the possibility of creating fully customized humans in a lab.

What could go wrong?

Don't get me wrong I totally see how the technology can also be used for good. That's what OpenAI says about their product, too.

[-] Onyxonblack@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 months ago

Yeah it's gonna be some Black Mirror shit

[-] Onyxonblack@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 months ago

Altman be praised! /s

[-] untorquer@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

"Just a a few years away" means, "We are attempting to grift a billionaire", and it won't be achieved. I wish the company many well funded years of unprofitable operation.

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[-] SlartyBartFast@sh.itjust.works 18 points 4 months ago

Production of humans without ties to historical family lines, would they have a number for a surname?

[-] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 6 points 4 months ago

Welcome to the brave new world order

And, in effect, eighty-three almost noseless black brachycephalic Deltas were cold-pressing. The fifty-six four-spindle chucking and turning machines were being manipulated by fifty-six aquiline and ginger Gammas. One hundred and seven heat-conditioned Epsilon Senegalese were working in the foundry. Thirty-three Delta females, long-headed, sandy, with narrow pelvises, and all within 20 millimetres of 1 metre 69 centimetres tall, were cutting screws. In the assembling room, the dynamos were being put together by two sets of Gamma-Plus dwarfs. The two low work-tables faced one another; between them crawled the conveyor with its load of separate parts; forty-seven blonde heads were confronted by forty-seven brown ones. Forty-seven snubs by forty-seven hooks; forty-seven receding by forty-seven prognathous chins. The completed mechanisms were inspected by eighteen identical curly auburn girls in Gamma green, packed in crates by thirty-four short-legged, left-handed male Delta-Minuses, and loaded into waiting trucks and lorries by sixty-three blue-eyed, flaxen and freckled Epsilon Semi-Morons.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokanovsky%27s_Process_(Brave_New_World)

[-] SlartyBartFast@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 months ago

Funnily enough I think I read that novel like twenty years ago

[-] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 5 points 4 months ago

I still say it is/was much more prescient than 1984.

[-] Policeshootout@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 months ago

I just read this for the first time about a month ago and it was my first thought reading the article.

[-] _chris@lemmy.world 15 points 4 months ago

Aha. So that's why they don't care if everyone but the billionaires die.

[-] Erasmus@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago

Blade Runner and 40k have entered the chat.

[-] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 7 points 4 months ago

And Starwars

Kaminoan meme

[-] Dr_Box@lemmy.world 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Isnt this just cloning? Like if they grew sperm cells and eggs from my dandruff and combined them

[-] RotSteinFinke@feddit.org 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

No, it is something different. Cloning creates a another being with the exact same DNA. This would allow people, who can't produce viable sperm/egg cells, to reproduce with their partner. First patients would be infertile men and women.

[-] Breadhax0r@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

Would a sperm/egg combo from the same person not be a clone?

[-] RotSteinFinke@feddit.org 3 points 4 months ago

The sperm and the egg would contain different copies of the chromosomes. The cell randomly divides its chromosomes when it becomes an egg or sperm. When they merge, two halves of a genome form a full one again. But some chromosomes would be there as doubles, others would be lost. The effect would be the same as incest. Mutations that would be hidden in a healthy cell would emerge.

[-] Mothra@mander.xyz 1 points 4 months ago

I guess, if you manage to create both sperm and eggs from the same sample and then use it to create an embryo. It sounds prone to a lot of defects though, for the same reason it's not recommended to have offspring with your siblings. I don't think that's what they're going after here.

The presumption is that they would be able to combine sperm and eggs that are different enough to avoid this. Just like with any regular pregnancy.

Keep in mind we already know how to manipulate/edit genes to enhance or suppress traits. Being able to conceive an embryo in vitro means you can now create a human tailored to your liking, without even needing a womb. That's a couple steps beyond cloning.

[-] ter_maxima@jlai.lu 7 points 4 months ago

I prefer my omelette without sperm, but to each their own I guess !

[-] Dorkyd68@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

There used to be a video on porn hub where multiple dudes nut in a frying pan. Some chick then proceeds to Crack a couple eggs to create a jizz omelet then feeds it to some other girl. Anyways

[-] thatradomguy@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

No f'ing way. 😂

[-] Nastybutler@lemmy.world 7 points 4 months ago
[-] vane@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

They are going after Hitler wet dream to create super human.

[-] GrumpyDuckling@sh.itjust.works 6 points 4 months ago

babies they can sell into slavery.

[-] Apocalypteroid@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

Oh good. Replicants. Can't wait to be an old man in the Bladerunner universe.

[-] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 5 points 4 months ago

Military applications for ward of the state and "universal soldier" applications! Yay humanity.

[-] kalkulat@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

I first read that as 'spam and eggs' and thought ... who the hell wants lab-grown spam?

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[-] lemmie689@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 4 months ago

You are a true believer. Blessings of the state, blessings of the masses. Thou art a subject of the divine. Created in the image of man, by the masses, for the masses. Let us be thankful we have an occupation to fill. Work hard; increase production, prevent accidents, and be happy.

[-] IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago

give me a grant and I'll make sperm in a lab, it's a lot of handy work.

[-] Scott_of_the_Arctic@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

I'm going to be the first to eat a Human omelette.

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this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2025
149 points (100.0% liked)

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