A new paper from George Church on trying to make human oocytes from stem cells seems notable for quite a few reasons. Something I’ve called stem cell IVF could be a future goal for Church’s work.
Over the years, Church has also discussed possible heritable human gene editing, even for traits, as potentially a positive. I’m more skeptical of such ideas.
He also didn’t seem that concerned about what He Jiankui did with making CRISPR babies.
Stem cell IVF could be used for attempts at human modification or enhancement.
The path to human eggs from stem cells: George Church team paper
Initiation of meiosis from human iPSCs under defined conditions through identification of regulatory factors, Science Advances. From the abstract, “Here, we establish a method to initiate meiosis directly from male or female human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). DNMT1 inhibition, retinoid signaling activation, and overexpression of regulatory factors (antiapoptotic BCL2 and promeiotic HOXB5, BOLL, or MEIOC) rapidly activates meiosis over a 15-day protocol.”
It’s intriguing work, but each of these steps could render any resulting human oocyte-like cells unusable in the IVF clinic for safety reasons. For example, HOXB5 can act as an oncogene. Overexpressing BCL2 wouldn’t be safe for producing germ cells intended for clinical use (e.g., for stem cell IVF) either. Then the combo of HOXB5 and BCL2 is likely to be even more oncogenic.
In the bigger picture, I do think that in vitro gametogenesis or IVG to produce human sperm or eggs will ultimately be successful. Those will then be used for IVF, first for research. I recently wrote over at STAT about Japan giving a green light for stem cell-based human embryo production via stem cell IVF.
Church retraction in the news this week
Church was in the news earlier this week as he had his first retraction out something like 700 papers.
A one-out-of-700 retraction rate doesn’t seem like much.
However, the specific anti-aging paper did raise concerns. This was work in collaboration with BioViva and its leader Liz Parrish, who has reported getting DIY-type gene therapy, a sort of somatic editing for enhancement.
Biomedical science in China
- China’s Biotech Is Cheaper and Faster, NYT.
- Chinese scientists transplant human brain cells to mice, boosting pleasure levels, SCMP. I don’t know about this one, which has received major media attention. Other coverage focused on this being a potential approach to depression. Here’s the research article in Cell Stem Cell: Human stem cell-derived A10 dopaminergic neurons specifically integrate into mouse circuits and improve depression-like behaviors
Other recommended reads
- Germline transmission of cryopreserved mouse spermatogonial stem cells maintained on the International Space Station, Stem Cell Reports.
- Lithium and Alzheimer’s Disease, Science Based Medicine.
- Seattle’s Allen Institute sends stem cells into orbit for historic heart and brain experiments, GeekWire.
- Why hype for autism stem cell therapies continues despite dead ends, The Transmitter. I’ve been doing The Niche for 15 years now and one of the most common questions I still get goes something like this, “I’m a parent with an autistic child and we’re considering going to a stem cell clinic, so what should we think about?” Since I started The Niche in 2010, the cell therapy for autism space has gotten clearer in a way. Even fans of this kind of approach have produced largely negative data from solid clinical trials. But the hype and marketing in this space remain relentless.