Conception has raised $40 million and claims to have made some new progress towards allowing same-sex couples whether gay, lesbian, or transgender to have genetically related offspring created from stem cells.

“Krisiloff and his colleagues say their company has gotten closer to making IVG a reality than anyone else by creating structures found in ovaries known as follicles, which are crucial for maturing eggs.”

“Within a year, Krisiloff and his colleagues hope, they’ll prove that the follicles in the mini-ovaries can develop the immature eggs into ones capable of being fertilized to make embryos and babies.”

“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.’”