A team of researchers in the United States and United Kingdom have said that they created the world’s first synthetic human embryo-like structures from stem cells, bypassing the need for eggs and sperm.
It is reportedly said that these embryo-like structures are at the very earliest stages of human development.
They do not have a beating heart or a brain.
But scientists say they could one day help advance the understanding of genetic diseases or the causes of miscarriages.
Many nations, including the US, do not have regulations governing the development or care of synthetic embryos.
The study presents important legal and ethical issues.
Experts in bioethics are concern about the speed of research in this area and the sophistication of these models as they get closer to the brink of extinction.
In a statement, James Briscoe, associate research director at the Francis Crick Institute said :
“Unlike human embryos arising from in vitro fertilization (IVF), where there is an established legal framework, there are currently no clear regulations governing stem cell derived models of human embryos. There is an urgent need for regulations to provide a framework for the creation and use of stem cell derived models of human embryos.”
Dr. Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz describe the work in a presentation to the International Society for Stem Cell Research’s annual meeting in Boston.
Zernicka-Goetz, a professor of biology and biological engineering at CalTech and the University of Cambridge, said the research has been accept at a well-regard scientific journal but has not been publish.
Zernicka-Goetz and her team with a rival team in Israel, had previously describe creating model embryo-like structures from mouse stem cells.
Those “embryoids” show the beginnings of a brain, heart and intestinal tract after about eight days of development.
As per Zernicka-Goetz, the embryo-like structures were develop from a single human embryonic stem cell that was encourage to differentiate into three separate tissue layers.
They consist of cells that would ordinarily grow into the embryo itself, the placenta, and the yolk sac.
