World’s first ever ‘synthetic embryos’ have been created. According to a study published in a journal, Israeli researchers developed a mouse embryo with a beating heart using just stem cells.
By utilizing solely stem cells from mouse skin, Israeli researchers have produced "synthetic embryos" for the first time ever without requiring sperm or egg cells.
The groundbreaking research, the findings of which were disclosed this week in the peer-reviewed journal Cell, found stem cells obtained from mice "self-assemble" into an embryo-like form with a digestive tract, brain, and even a beating heart.
The outcomes were truly "remarkable," in the words of cell biologist Professor Jacob Hanna of the Weizmann Institute of Science. “There was no sperm, no egg and no uterus, but we managed to get embryos formed from stem cells alone to eight days – a third of the gestation period of a mouse – with a beating heart,” he told Times of Israel.
According to him, this is the first instan...