The Open Philanthropy Project recommended a grant of $4,000,000 over five years to Kyoto University to support research by Professor Mitinori Saitou on reproductive biology. Dr. Saitou has been at the forefront of research into methods of causing induced pluripotent stem cells to develop into oocytes in mice.
Progress in this area could eventually enable people with fertility challenges to have children and could eventually help reduce the incidence of a wide variety of high-burden disorders (such as heart disease, chronic pain, depression, and Alzheimer’s disease) and lead to other beneficial outcomes. Dr. Saitou’s research is amongst the most promising Open Philanthropy’s science team has encountered so far in this field.
This falls within Open Philanthropy’s work on scientific research, and specifically within its interest in advancing transformative basic science.