An "oocyte" is a scientific term used to describe an egg cell in females. It is the cell that can be fertilized by a sperm cell to start the development of a new life. Full definition
It also should relieve the worries of the scholars involved with the journal Communio ¯ the use of oocytes in epigenetic reprogramming was one of the major reasons they feared the resulting cell was a disabled embryo. (firstthings.com)
But few labs had a source of human oocytes with which to attempt the experiment. (sciencemag.org)
To find out more about the pathway's role in oocyte maturation, Nick Duesbery, a postdoc in Vande Woude's lab, was seeking compounds that block MAPK's activity. (sciencemag.org)