Synthetic human embryos created for first time using no eggs or sperm
The scientific breakthrough has led to ethical and legal concerns.
side by side of a doctor in a lab injecting a petri dish under a microscope next to a human embryo connected to the lines of a printed circuit board
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BY ELLA KIPLING
Scientists have created synthetic human embryos using no eggs or sperm, which could help researchers study the earliest stages of human development.
Nobody is currently suggesting growing them into a baby, though ethical and legal concerns have been risen.
The development of synthetic embryos was announced by Professor Magdalena Żernicka-Goetz from the University of Cambridge at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research.
These synthetic embryos are ‘embryo models’ which means they resemble embryos but are not identical to them.
The models could provide insight into genetic disorders, how organs develop, and the biological causes of recurrent miscarriage.
In most countries, including the UK, natural embryos studies in a dish must be destroyed after 14 days. This is to avoid ethical issues around working with something that could, in some situations, grow into a foetus. However, these rules do not apply to synthetic embryos.
Currently, scientists cannot see exactly what is going on inside the uterus at any stage of pregnancy, and the 14-day rule prevents human embryos past this stage from being studied in the lab.
This means that this period is 'a black box', according to Roger Sturmey from Hull York Medical School.
Robin Lovell-Badge, the head of the stem cell biology and developmental genetics at the Francis Crick Institute in London said: ‘If the whole intention is that these models are very much like normal embryos, then in a way they should be treated the same. Currently, in legislation, they’re not.’
Lovell-Badge added that ‘people are worried about this’.
New rules that apply to synthetic embryos are being drawn up in the UK, but nothing has been announced in other countries. Scientists such as Żernicka-Goetz have been working alongside legal experts, patient representatives, and legal ethicists to discuss what new rules should apply.
Recommendations have been submitted to the UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.
James Briscoe from The Francis Crick Institute said that policymakers may consider making a cut-off based on the developmental stage the synthetic embryo has reached.
‘Perhaps the threshold will be the formation of a certain organ system,’ he said.
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