For the first time, scientists have managed to create early-stage human embryos using DNA from skin cells. It is early days, but the breakthrough could completely change how we think about fertility.
Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University pulled off this bold move by using a technique called in vitro gametogenesis, or IVG. It is a fancy name, but the idea is simple. They took a skin cell, flipped its genetic switch, and turned it into something close to a natural egg. Then they fertilized it, creating an early embryo.
How It Works
Skin cells have 46 chromosomes. Human eggs only have 23. That is because when an egg meets sperm, each contributes half the total DNA. To make this work, scientists had to figure out a way to cut the skin cell's DNA in half, without messing it up.
E Online! / Men could provide skin cells that are turned into eggs. One man’s skin cell could become an egg, and his partner could provide the sperm. That means same-sex male couples might one day have biological children together.
They pulled it off using a clever three-step process. First, they took the nucleus from a woman’s skin cell. Then, they placed it inside a donor egg that had its own nucleus removed. Finally, they used the donor egg’s internal machinery to trigger a new kind of cell division.
This process, called mitomeiosis, chopped the DNA count down to 23 chromosomes. Once that was done, they fertilized the egg using regular IVF.
What This Could Mean for Families?
So, what does this mean in real life? If scientists can make this safe and reliable, it could open up entirely new paths to parenthood. For women who can’t produce eggs - due to age, illness, or medical treatments - this method could help them have genetically related children. That alone would be a huge deal.
There is also the potential for a practically unlimited supply of lab-grown eggs. This could supercharge fertility research, speed up genetic disease studies, and reshape how we approach reproductive medicine in general.
GTN / The biggest problem is mitomeiosis. It is not perfect yet. It scrambles the chromosomes in unpredictable ways. Until scientists can control that process and ensure every egg ends up with the right genetic setup, this won’t be safe for humans.
However, the process isn't ready for prime time. Not even close. Right now, it is proof-of-concept only. The embryos created in the study weren’t healthy. Most had the wrong number of chromosomes, or they were mismatched. That kind of glitch stops proper development cold.
Out of 82 eggs made, only 9% reached the blastocyst stage. That is just a few days into embryo development. And all of them had genetic issues. None of the embryos made it past six days. So while the science is amazing, there is still a long way to go.
Experts estimate it will take at least ten more years of research to get this technology anywhere near clinical use. There are still massive technical, legal, and ethical hurdles to clear. And that brings up the bigger conversation: Just because we can do something, should we?
This research raises serious ethical concerns. The process involves nuclear transfer, the same method used in cloning. That is already tightly regulated and comes with heavy public concern. Plus, if it becomes possible to grow eggs from any person’s cells, there could be major risks of misuse.