What’s the News: For the first time in medical history,
scientists have successfully grown mouse sperm in a laboratory.
As Northwestern University cell biologist Erwin Goldberg told
New Scientist, “People have been trying to do this for years.”
It’s hoped that being able to grow sperm outside the testes will
lead to improved fertility treatments for men. How the Heck: -
The concept is simple: Combine the right dosage of chemicals
that will provide nourishment to testes in a petri dish.
Actually finding the magic amount is a tedious process of trial
and error. - First, the team genetically engineered mice “so
that a protein only present in fully grown sperm would fluoresce
green.” - Next, the scientists extracted germ cells (which
produce sperm) from the newborn mice testes, and put them in a
bath of agarose gel, fetal bovine serum, testosterone, and other
chemicals. - After about a month, they discovered that virtually
half of the lab-grown sperm were glowing, indicating that they
were fully grown. - They the