Media Releases

Scientists capture most intimate view yet of human conception

June 16, 2016

Globe & Mail | June. 15, 2016

Using high-pow­ered X‑rays and sophis­ti­cat­ed com­put­er algo­rithms, two teams of researchers – one based in Cana­da, one in Japan – have revealed the mys­te­ri­ous con­nec­tion that allows a human sperm to fas­ten on to an egg and trig­ger fer­til­iza­tion. “It will open up a lot of doors,” said Jef­frey Lee, a struc­tur­al biol­o­gist at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to who was the senior researcher on the Cana­di­an team. “This is the first time we’ve iden­ti­fied a pro­tein com­plex link­ing a human sperm to a human egg.” Read more.