In a groundbreaking development, scientists have created synthetic human embryos from stem cells, without using sperm or eggs.The advance was described by Prof. Magdalena Żernicka-Goetz, of the University of Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology, during an address at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, held in Boston.
However, the full details of the latest work, from the Cambridge-Caltech lab, are yet to be published in a journal paper. Our human model is the first three-lineage human embryo model that specifies amnion and germ cells, precursor cells of egg and sperm," Professor Magdalena Żernicka-Goetz, of the University of Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology, was quoted as saying by The Guardian. "It’s beautiful and created entirely from embryonic stem cells." Created by stem cells, it does not have a beating heart or the beginning of a brain. However, they do have the cells which form the placenta, yolk sac and the embryo itself.A report in The Guardian cites scientists saying that these sythetically created embryos could provide crucial information on the biological causes of recurrent miscarriages. According to a paper published in The Lancet in April 2021, globally, an estimated 23 million miscarriages occur annually