A new lab technology—already far along in mice—could allow for the creation of fertilized embryos using sperm and eggs derived from non-reproductive body tissues.
Even game-changing reproductive advances like in vitro fertilization or mitochondrial replacement therapy require that the gametes—the sperm and the egg—come from the father’s testes and the mother’s ovaries, respectively. But the new lab technology could upend that biological imperative by—at its hypothetical endpoint—creating embryos from sources such as repurposed skin cells.
