By: Bryan Li

They could use this technology to make synthetic organs for humans, The Washington Post says.

Scientists in Israel managed to create mouse embryos without egg or sperm and “grow” them for eight days, The Washington Post claimed. If they find out more, it could be potentially be used for making organs for humans. The synthetic embryo resembled a real one, said The Washington Post. It had a beating heart, organs, and blood circulation.

This also allows scientists to study embryos and learn about how organs form. “This is an important landmark in our understanding of how embryos build themselves,” Alfonso Martinez Arias, a developmental biologist for Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona wrote in an email.

According to The Washington Post, there is only a small chance that the embryo will start developing. Even still, it makes growing human organs sound like a possible thing. “The mouse is a starting point for thinking about how one wants to approach this in humans,” Alex Meissner, a stem cell biologist at Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics said.