Advancing Infertility Treatment through Human Germ Cell Formation

Infertility affects about one in six people of reproductive age, yet its causes often remain unexplained. In some cases, infertility may originate before a person is even born, very early in their own embryonic development, when primordial germ cells—the cells that eventually give rise to eggs and sperm—first form. Today, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine awarded Caltech’s Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz and collaborators a $2.4 million grant for work to understand the surrounding tissues and signals that guide germ cells as they emerge.