Free-Range Eggs?

doi:10.1126/science.1142267

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Editorial

Free-Range Eggs?

Anne McLaren

Human eggs are in short supply, but much in demand. Many infertile women need donated eggs if they are to bear children. Researchers need eggs for somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) to try to develop stem cell lines. If SCNT-derived stem cells could be made from patients suffering from devastating conditions such as motor neuron disease, they could provide unlimited material for molecular and biochemical analyses and clues for future therapy. But where can all these eggs come from to make these stem cells? And what about the reverse situation: making human eggs from stem cells?

Anne McLaren is at the Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute, Cambridge, UK.

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