Japanese researchers working to develop babies in lab by 2028

A team of Japanese researchers are working on a method to develop babies in the laboratory as early as 2028, according to a study that can help treat infertility and other birth defects.

A team of Japanese researchers are working on a method to develop babies in the laboratory as early as 2028, according to a study that can help treat infertility and other birth defects.

The researchers at Kyushu University aim to mass-produce eggs and sperm in the lab from ordinary human cells.

In the study, published in the journal Nature, the team described their method of turning male mice’s skin cells into pluripotent stem cells, which can potentially develop into various types of cells or tissues.

They then grew these cells with a drug that converted the male rodent stem cells into female cells, which produced viable egg cells. These eggs were then fertilised to produce newborn male mice.

“The study provides insights that could ameliorate infertility caused by sex chromosome or autosomal disorders, and opens the possibility of bipaternal reproduction,” wrote Professor Katsuhiko Hayashi, a stem cell biology expert at the varsity, in the paper.