Sperm Grown in Lab Can’t Swim, But Can Fertilize, Raising Hope for Infertility Therapy

February 26, 2016

(STAT News) – But nearly one-third of the 50 million couples with infertility around the world are unable to conceive because of the man’s inability to properly create sperm cells. Now, by recreating the environment of the testicle in a Petri dish, scientists in China have succeeded in coaxing mouse stem cells to form sperm-like cells that could successfully fertilize eggs and make healthy pups. The researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Bejing, Nanjing Medical University, and elsewhere reported the findings Thursday in the journal Cell Stem Cell.