Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science have done groundbreaking research, creating synthetic mouse embryos in Israel without using sperm or egg cells. The study’s objective is not to create mice or babies not developed inside a womb but to make a head start. Through investigations, scientists will work to understand how organs develop in embryos and use that knowledge to create new ways to heal people when they are injured. The goal was for the embryo to be grown in an artificial womb for eight days. The development can open a whole new, appealing world of science that, in the future, may be used to grow replacement organs for sick people.
At the Weizmann Institute of Science, scientists used embryonic stem cells to create synthetic mouse embryos resembling real ones, with essential functions like beating hearts, blood circulation, folded brain tissue, and intestinal tracts. The mouse embryos are grown in an artificial womb and stop growing after eight days, about a third of mouse pregnancies.
This discovery arose from a field of immense efforts to develop embryo models created from human and mouse cells. Scientists can use models like these to observe the earliest stages of an embryo’s development and study how organs form inside an embryo.
However, there is a lingering issue. As the models resemble the real embryo more and more, they also open ethically undiscovered territory. At what point will the synthetic embryos become so similar to the real embryos that they are put under protection similar to those enforced on the natural ones?
“This is an important landmark in our understanding of how embryos build themselves,” said Alfonso Martinez Arias, a developmental biologist at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, in an email. He dubbed the experiment a “game changer.”
However, the creation of synthetic mouse embryos is far from growing a mouse and even further from a human outside a womb. The research serves as a proof of concept that it is possible for a hundred percent synthetic embryo to be created from embryonic stem cells.
While the research was a success, errors were likely to be made in the process, with only a tiny portion of the embryos surviving long enough to develop signs of a functional heart and other organs.
However, according to Jacob Hanna, the scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science who led the research, even though the synthetic mouse embryos were very similar to the natural embryos, they are not the same. That also means they did not create an outcome of real mice becoming pregnant.
Link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/08/01/synthetic-mouse-embryo/
At the Weizmann Institute of Science, scientists used embryonic stem cells to create synthetic mouse embryos resembling real ones, with essential functions like beating hearts, blood circulation, folded brain tissue, and intestinal tracts. The mouse embryos are grown in an artificial womb and stop growing after eight days, about a third of mouse pregnancies.
This discovery arose from a field of immense efforts to develop embryo models created from human and mouse cells. Scientists can use models like these to observe the earliest stages of an embryo’s development and study how organs form inside an embryo.
However, there is a lingering issue. As the models resemble the real embryo more and more, they also open ethically undiscovered territory. At what point will the synthetic embryos become so similar to the real embryos that they are put under protection similar to those enforced on the natural ones?
“This is an important landmark in our understanding of how embryos build themselves,” said Alfonso Martinez Arias, a developmental biologist at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, in an email. He dubbed the experiment a “game changer.”
However, the creation of synthetic mouse embryos is far from growing a mouse and even further from a human outside a womb. The research serves as a proof of concept that it is possible for a hundred percent synthetic embryo to be created from embryonic stem cells.
While the research was a success, errors were likely to be made in the process, with only a tiny portion of the embryos surviving long enough to develop signs of a functional heart and other organs.
However, according to Jacob Hanna, the scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science who led the research, even though the synthetic mouse embryos were very similar to the natural embryos, they are not the same. That also means they did not create an outcome of real mice becoming pregnant.
Link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/08/01/synthetic-mouse-embryo/
