Created synthetic human embryos from stem cells
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Scientists have obtained synthetic human embryos using stem cells in a revolutionary advance that sidesteps the need for eggs or sperm. This was reported in an exclusive by the Guardian which takes up the announcement of the biologist Magdalena Żernicka-Goetz, of the University of Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology, who spoke yesterday at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research in Boston. “We can create models similar to human embryos by reprogramming (embryonic stem) cells,” she said at the meeting.
The structures obtained from stem cells, writes the British newspaper, do not have a beating heart or the beginning of a brain, but include cells that would normally form the placenta, the yolk sac and the embryo itself. Full details of the latest work, from the Cambridge-Caltech lab have yet to be published in a scientific journal. But, speaking at the conference, Żernicka-Goetz described growing embryos to a stage just above the equivalent of 14 days of development for a natural embryo. Scientists say these model embryos could provide a crucial window into studying both genetic diseases and the biological causes of recurring miscarriages, the Guardian adds. However, the British newspaper points out, the work also raises serious ethical, legal and legislative problems.
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