this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2025
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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 59 points 1 day ago (10 children)

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 104 points 1 day ago (3 children)

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

[–] DeathsEmbrace@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

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 20 hours ago

Well of course

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Depopulation is a problem for any economic system. You can't run any form of government or economy when young workers aren't contributing to the tax base and the aging population requires more and more care.

Sure as clockwork someone will come along and say tax the rich. That only works for so long in this scenario. The rich get rich off our backs. No backs, no rich.

[–] Mediocre_Bard@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago

No, see, what if we just had way less people? Fuck taxes, fuck the economy, just have everyone commit to a one child policy. Yeah, I won't be able to sit on my ass and play WoW all day, but is that really helping anyone?

Responses will be delayed by WoW marathons.

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[–] IhaveCrabs111@lemmy.world 2 points 16 hours ago

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

[–] SonOfAntenora@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

That's the actual setup of ergo proxy...not that they are volountarily sterilised. The whole point us the artifucial womb. I don't know if you watched it but if you haven't, do it.

[–] catty@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

No more unwanted pregnancies.

... and no more poor stupid people (as per Musk's eugenics beliefs)

[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 2 points 12 hours ago

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

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[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 27 points 1 day ago (4 children)

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 6 points 1 day 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 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

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 20 hours ago

Yeah it's gonna be some Black Mirror shit

[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

"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.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 1 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

I hope you are so right, I really hope

[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 1 points 17 hours ago

Not like the story will end. This one's in the same cabinet as combatting aging.

[–] Onyxonblack@lemmy.zip 2 points 20 hours ago

Altman be praised! /s

[–] SlartyBartFast@sh.itjust.works 18 points 23 hours ago (3 children)

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

[–] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 8 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

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 6 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 6 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] Policeshootout@lemmy.ca 1 points 11 hours ago

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

[–] catty@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago

...and be trained in the art of killing?

[–] GreenKnight23@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

having a name at all implies they are human and deserve a name. they will have call signs and serial numbers.

collapsed inline media1000001710

[–] _chris@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago

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

[–] Erasmus@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Blade Runner and 40k have entered the chat.

[–] Dr_Box@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

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

[–] RotSteinFinke@feddit.org 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

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 1 day ago (1 children)

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

[–] RotSteinFinke@feddit.org 4 points 1 day 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 17 hours 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 8 hours ago (1 children)

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

[–] Dorkyd68@lemmy.world 2 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

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 8 hours ago

No f'ing way. 😂

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[–] Nastybutler@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago
[–] kalkulat@lemmy.world 5 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

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

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[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 4 points 12 hours ago

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

[–] vane@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

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

babies they can sell into slavery.

[–] Apocalypteroid@lemmy.world 4 points 8 hours ago

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

[–] lemmie689@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 1 day 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.

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 1 day ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

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

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