A Berkeley, California, biotech startup is working to create lab-grown human eggs, which its owners say will revolutionize how humans reproduce. 

"I personally think what we're doing will probably change many aspects of society as we know it," Pablo Hurtado, the chief scientific officer and one of the founders of the company Conception, told NPR. "It's really exciting to be working on a technology that can change the lives of millions of humans."

Conception is working to accelerate and eventually commercialize a biomedical research field, in vitro gametogenesis (IVG). Matt Krisiloff, another of the company's founders said the business is "trying to turn a type of stem cell called an induced pluripotent stem cell into a human egg."

This would allow people to have children who don't have other options, Krislioff added. 

The technology, if perfected, will allow women who can't produce healthy eggs, women whose eggs are not viable because of their age, and others to have their own genetically related babies. 

Induced pluripotent stem cells can be made from a single skin cell, meaning the eggs would have that person's DNA, and Krisiloff said his biggest interest in the technology is that it could allow same-sex couples to have biological children together. 

With IVG, eggs can be created from one person's cells and then fertilized with sperm from his partner, and then a surrogate mother could carry the resulting embryo and give birth to a baby related to both men. 

Conversely, IVG can also create sperm, allowing lesbian couples or transgender couples to have biologically related babies as well. 

IVG has already been completed in mice by Japanese scientists, and the race is on with many other labs to create human eggs. But Conception's founders say their company is closer than others, as it's created follicles, structures that are found in ovaries, which must be present to bring eggs to maturation.

Krisiloff said Conception has raised nearly $40 million and now has a staff of more than 40 people. 

The company hopes that within a year it will be able to prove that the follicles in mini-ovaries in the lab will develop immature eggs into ones that can be fertilized. 

"We think it means we're quite close to being able to have proof-of-concept human eggs — instead of this abstract idea that's really just an imaginative science fiction idea — that really indicates that, 'Hey, this technology is actually closer than people think,'" Krisiloff said. 

The company has not published its results, and independent scientists have not been able to validate the claims. 

Some scientists have their doubts that Conception has been able to achieve a follicle, but others believe the company. 

"Conception has a team of 30-plus scientists, as well as access to sufficient funding and resources to support rigorous IVG research," said Dr. Paula Amato of the Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, who participated in the workshop. "I wouldn't be surprised if they indeed had reached a primary follicle stage."

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