Creation of artificial gametes by transdifferentiating human somatic cells

Creation of artificial gametes is a long-term goal in the field of infertility research; however, Dr. Simón’s research team has demonstrated the possibility of converting somatic cells into primordial germ cell-like cells by inducing the expression of germ cell genes with the use of CRISPR/Cas9 to induce the expression of germ cell-related genes SOX17, PRDM1, PRDM14, LIN28, DAZL, VASA, and SYCP3.
They have characterized in vitro-generated primordial germ cell-like cells at the single-cell level.