By: Jonathan Shan

Scientists in Israel have discovered how to create synthetic mouse embryos without using a sperm or egg. They have made it an artificial womb, which may be the key to creating organs for human transplants.

The researchers use this study to analyze how animals develop from a cellular level. They aim to earn how organs develop in embryos and use this information to create organs.

Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science created synthetic embryos from embryonic stem cells that looked like mouse embryos. The embryos had a heartbeat, blood circulation, brain tissue, and intestines.

Some researchers are attempting to recreate this with human organs. “This is an important landmark in our understanding of how embryos build themselves,” Alfonso Martinez Arias, a biologist at Pompeu Fabra University.

Although there is still a long way to go to accomplish this feat, as studies can still barely produce a mouse, it is proof that a complete synthetic embryo could potentially be assembled from embryonic stem cells. The embryos still weren’t quite the same, so they didn’t quite work with real mice.

“It’s an interesting next step, not shocking, but one that makes more plausible in the long run a proposition with broad implications: the possibility of turning any mouse cell into a living mouse,” said Henry T. Greely, a bioethicist at Stanford Law School.

Stem cells can repair tissue and organs, so researchers hope to extend their ability and fix issues such as spinal cord injuries and damaged limbs. However, they need to ensure that the organs and limbs can still function, which is one of their biggest challenges.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/08/01/synthetic-mouse-embryo/