Movies come true. For the first time, synthetic human embryos have been created, derived from stem cells without the need for eggs or sperm. What consequences will there be now? Will we get to create human beings in the laboratory or will we know how to make the most of this knowledge?
After created a tiny working heart in the lab, this time we managed to reproduce real embryos. They represent the very first stages of human development e could allow fundamental studies on various pathologies such as recurrent miscarriages and genetic diseases.
The breakthrough was reported by the newspaper The Guardian following an announcement at the annual meeting from the International Society for Stem Cell Research, Professor Magdalena Żernicka-Goetz developmental biologist at the University of Cambridge and Caltech.
At present, embryos do not yet possess vital organs such as a brain or heart, but include the cells that would be needed to form a placenta and a yolk sac.
Żernicka-Goetz stated how the structures are grown just over the equivalent of 14 days of natural gestation for a human embryo in the womb. However, it is not yet clear whether they are able to mature further.
Passing this scientific milestone also comes with a number of ethical and legal hurdles. One of the key questions is: how similar these structures are to natural embryos?
From a legal point of view, in fact, currently only cultivation of human embryos in the laboratory for a maximum of 14 days is permitted. After this point, there is a window of time where developmental biology research is hamperedbecause scientists are only able to resume their studies much later by studying pregnancy scans and donated embryos.
Reacting to the news, other experts in the field of stem cell research pointed out the importance of improving our understanding of embryonic development.
This is the case, for example, of Dr Rodrigo Suarez of the University of Queensland, who in a recent statement states that: “The potential benefits are huge, ranging from a better understanding of how early tissues self-organize during phases that otherwise would not be possible to study with current approachesto the elucidation of the genetic and cellular requirements involved in early human development in health and disease”.
The ethical and legal implications are therefore decidedly complex to deal with. After also seeing how keep cells alive after death But one thing is certain: regulators around the world must begin to adjust to the pace of these new scientific developmentsso that we can more clearly define what these synthetic embryos are (in the legal sense) and how they can be used.