[5] After completing his bachelor's degree in microbiology at the University of Illinois, he applied to medical school to become a doctor, but his doubts caused him to defer in favor of a two-year internship with drug company Amgen[1] at the National Institutes of Health.
In 1998 he applied to study for a Ph.D. in biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, arriving there shortly after Dolly the Sheep gained worldwide attention as the world's first cloned domestic animal.
[1] Eggan began to explore both this process and also the reasons that cloned animals often appeared to develop abnormally, with organ defects and immunological problems – his first contact with stem cell research.
In August 2004, Eggan moved to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a junior fellow, becoming an assistant professor of Molecular & Cellular Biology at their Stem Cell Institute ("HSCI") in 2005.
[9][11][12] These discoveries sparked extensive debate in the United States Congress, with opponents of the use of embryonic stem cells from fetuses arguing that these or similar methods of creating stem cells from skin might be eventually used instead to satisfy the conflicting demands of medical research and morals.