Mouse “embryoids” can now be grown from stem cells
They have incipient brains, hearts and guts
These two pictures are of 8.5-day-old mouse embryos. The right-hand one was conceived in the normal way, by a sperm fertilising an egg. That on the left was grown from stem cells and then transferred to an artificial womb by a team led by Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz of Cambridge University, one of two groups who have reported creating such synthetic “embryoids” in recent weeks. The other group is led by Jacob Hanna of the Weizmann Institute, in Israel, who developed the womb. Blastoids and gastruloids mimicking earlier stages of embryonic development have been grown in the past. Embryoids carry the process yet closer to the creation of a viable synthetic animal, which, if the stem cells in question were derived from the body cells of another, would be a clone of that individual.
Curious about the world? To enjoy our mind-expanding science coverage, sign up to Simply Science, our weekly newsletter.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline "Synthetic mouse embryos"
From the September 3rd 2022 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from Science & technology
The Great Barrier Reef is seeing unprecedented coral bleaching
Continued global warming will mean its obliteration
Some corals are better at handling the heat
Scientists are helping them breed
Today’s AI models are impressive. Teams of them will be formidable
Working together will make LLMs more capable and intelligent—for good and ill