New lab model of human embryo may aid reproduction research upi.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from upi.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Credit: Monash University
AUSTRALIAN - LED INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH TEAM GENERATES THE FIRST MODEL OF EARLY HUMAN EMBRYOS FROM SKIN CELLS
In a discovery that will revolutionize research into the causes of early miscarriage, infertility and the study of early human development - an international team of scientists led by Monash University in Melbourne, Australia has generated a model of a human embryo from skin cells.
The team, led by Professor Jose Polo, has successfully reprogrammed these fibroblasts or skin cells into a 3-dimensional cellular structure that is morphologically and molecularly similar to human blastocysts. Called iBlastoids, these can be used to model the biology of early human embryos in the laboratory.
For the first time, scientists have used human cells to make structures that mimic the earliest stages of development, which they say will pave the way for more research without running afoul of restrictions on using real embryos.
Scientists form human cell clumps that act like early-stage embryos theguardian.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theguardian.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Updated 3/17/2021 12:03 PM
WASHINGTON For the first time, scientists have used human cells to make structures that mimic the earliest stages of development, which they say will pave the way for more research without running afoul of restrictions on using real embryos.
Two papers published Wednesday in the journal Nature detail how two teams of scientists independently made such structures.
They stressed that their work is only for research, not reproduction, but it likely will pose new ethical questions. Studying early human development is really difficult. It s basically a black box, said Jun Wu, a stem cell biologist at the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center.