September 30, 2025
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Scientists Create Human Eggs from Skin Cells

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov report in Nature Communications (Sept. 30, 2025) that they produced human eggs whose nuclear DNA came from adult skin cells by replacing donor-egg DNA and inducing a novel cell-division pathway dubbed 'mitomeiosis.' The team generated 82 functional eggs, fertilized some with sperm, and found about 9% of resulting embryos reached the blastocyst stage, though all embryos exhibited genetic abnormalities that currently preclude implantation.

Health Science

🔍 Key Facts

  • Lead researcher: Shoukhrat Mitalipov at Oregon Health & Science University; study published Sept. 30, 2025 in Nature Communications
  • Output: 82 functional eggs created; 9% of fertilized embryos developed to blastocyst stage
  • Caveat: all embryos showed genetic abnormalities preventing safe implantation; technique used somatic-cell nuclear transfer and a process the authors call 'mitomeiosis'

📍 Contextual Background

  • Debarment is a federal administrative process that can render an entity ineligible to receive federal grants.
  • The Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services referred Harvard University to a debarment process.
  • The U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, allowing enforcement of state abortion bans.
  • The Office for Civil Rights is an office within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
  • Medication abortion commonly uses a two-drug regimen that includes mifepristone.
  • Medication abortion pills are the most common way abortions are accessed in the United States and contributed to an increase in abortion numbers in 2024, according to reporting.
  • As of September 29, 2025, eight U.S. states, including New York and California, have shield laws that seek to protect medical providers who prescribe abortion medications to patients in states with abortion bans.

📰 Sources (1)