Scientists hail a stem cell experiment

Research is seen helping in studies of birth defects
By Raja Mishra, Globe Staff, 12/11/2003

Harvard-affiliated researchers fertilized mouse eggs with sperm grown from embryonic stem cells, according to a new study with broad implications for understanding infertility and birth defects.

In the same study, the researchers created a continuously regenerating pool of embryonic germ cells, early-stage cells that go on to become sperm and eggs. Scientists suspect many birth defects originate in these early cells. But they can only be harvested from aborted fetuses, and thus have not been widely studied. The new study shows how to grow them from stem cells in a petri dish.

"Germ cells are given the responsibility for perpetuating the species, and understanding how germ-cell formation goes awry may teach us about early developmental defects, as well as some forms of male infertility," said Dr. George Q. Daley of Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, the study's senior author. "Our research is aimed at understanding normal and pathologic tissue formation, and not so much at futuristic means of assisted reproduction."

more.........

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/12/11/scientists_hail_a_stem_cell_experiment/

on a more careul second reading-----I thought title said science HALTS research---