Scientists create human eggs in the lab, using skin cells

Mitalipov laboratory

Scientists have created human eggs containing genes from adult skin cells, a step that someday could help women who are infertile or gay couples have babies with their own genes but would also raise difficult ethical, social and legal issues.

"It's a significant step forward," says Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, who led the research published in the journal Nature Communications .

Millions of women can't have children using their own eggs because of their age or other reasons. So scientists have been trying to create human eggs in the lab that carry the genes of people struggling to have children. The field is known as in vitro gametogenesis , and involves researchers around the world, including in Japan , as wel