Scientists in Israel have grown a model of an early human embryo without using a human egg or sperm. One researcher claims it offers a glimpse into the earliest days of pregnancy.
The complete model was grown without sperm, eggs, or a woman’s womb, 9News reported Thursday.
The team of researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science created the model with stem cells outside the womb.
It is a project the article said is “paving the way for advances in fertility and transplants,” adding that the research was published Wednesday in the journal Nature under the title “Complete human day 14 post-implantation embryo models from naïve ES cells.”
The synthetic embryo model reportedly has every element of a 14-day-old human embryo, such as the placenta, yolk sac, and chorionic sac.
The team’s leader, Professor Jacob Hanna, explained there is not much information available about an early embryo because it is difficult to study due to ethical and technical reasons.
However, he said, “Our stem cell-derived human embryo model offers an ethical and accessible way of peering into this box. It closely mimics the development of a real human embryo, particularly the emergence of its exquisitely fine architecture,” he added.
According to BBC News, the purpose of creating the model was to find an ethical way of studying the way stem cells form organs:
In June, Scientists at the California Institute of Technology and the University of Cambridge in Britain used stem cells to create a “synthetic human embryo” while vowing to use the technology for research and not to create “transhuman nightmares beyond our comprehension,” according to Breitbart News’s Allum Bokhari.
However, stricter regulations were later called for when it came to such research, AFP reported on June 19.
According to 9News, the recent study has resulted in a finding that could help researchers look into early pregnancy failure.
It is important to note that in 2017, Professor Hank Greely of Stanford University Law School’s Center for Law and the Biosciences predicted that within the next 30 years, parents will eventually begin choosing from a selection of lab-made embryos created from their DNA to have babies, Breitbart News reported.
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