Scientists claim to have created human embryos (1 Viewer)

[Galileo]

Although not published yet, scientists from Cambridge and California Institute of Technology presenting at the International Society for Stem Cell Research described the creation of synthetic human embryos from stem cells. The motivation is purely based in research of human development. Current guidelines only allow for a 14 day growth period of embryos after fertilization. This advancement bypasses the sperm/egg fertilization to produce embryos that are developmentally just beyond the 14 day window...no eggs or sperm needed. Work like this is wildly exciting, IMO, but obviously comes with a great deal of ethical and legal issues to hash out. Synthetic mouse and monkey embryos have been created in the past, but attempts to implant these into mice and monkeys for development have previously failed. No one here is suggesting this be attempted with humans...yet. History shows us that if it can be done, someone will eventually do it. Since this work is not formally published I can't cite it directly. Instead, I'll link a couple of news sources reporting on the topic.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/14/health/human-model-embryo/index.html

Synthetic human embryos created in groundbreaking advance

Exclusive: Breakthrough could aid research into genetic disorders but raises serious ethical and legal issues

www.theguardian.com

First synthetic human embryo raises ethical issues

The synthetic embryos - only days or weeks old - could help explain infertility and pregnancy loss.

www.bbc.com

 

[IvanKaramazov]

Big deal. I created two of them myself.

 

[Doug B]

I guess it's a term of art ... but since they're starting from human stem cells, doesn't seem like they should be calling these embryos "synthetic". That's leading laymen to the wrong ideas about what's been developed.

"Embryo" might even be misleading. I'm betting these are literal "balls of cells" rather than what many would imagine: early fetuses with distinguishable heads, arms and legs.

 

[Galileo]

I guess it's a term of art ... but since they're starting from human stem cells, doesn't seem like they should be calling these embryos "synthetic". That's leading laymen to the wrong ideas about what's been developed.

"Embryo" might even be misleading. I'm betting these are literal "balls of cells" rather than what many would imagine: early fetuses with distinguishable heads, arms and legs.

Definitely no distinguishable features. We are talking about approximately 2 week old embryos. They have reached just beyond the sheet of cells stage...

The model structures, each grown from a single embryonic stem cell, reached the beginning of a developmental milestone known as gastrulation, when the embryo transforms from being a continuous sheet of cells to forming distinct cell lines and setting up the basic axes of the body. At this stage, the embryo does not yet have a beating heart, gut or beginnings of a brain, but the model showed the presence of primordial cells that are the precursor cells of egg and sperm.

“Our human model is the first three-lineage human embryo model that specifies amnion and germ cells, precursor cells of egg and sperm,” Żernicka-Goetz told the Guardian before the talk. “It’s beautiful and created entirely from embryonic stem cells.”

 

[Terminalxylem]

AI cyborgs right around the corner

 

[Ilov80s]

Big deal. I created two of them myself.

It's a big deal for scientists though. My cousin is a chemical engineer and we were really shocked when he finally found a girlfriend.

 

[Manster]

So lemme get this straight........they wanna increase the killing of naturally created embryos, but at the same time, create synthetic ones in a lab......if that ain't a sign of the apocalypse, I don't know what is

 

[Manster]

You realize where this tech is going to go don't you? Making huge schlongs

 

[Galileo]

So lemme get this straight........they wanna increase the killing of naturally created embryos, but at the same time, create synthetic ones in a lab......if that ain't a sign of the apocalypse, I don't know what is

OK, let's donate all those unwanted naturally created embryos that "they" (whoever they are) want to kill to science for purposes of research and furthering our understanding of human development. Yeah, didn't think so...

 

[Manster]

So lemme get this straight........they wanna increase the killing of naturally created embryos, but at the same time, create synthetic ones in a lab......if that ain't a sign of the apocalypse, I don't know what is

OK, let's donate all those unwanted naturally created embryos that "they" (whoever they are) want to kill to science for purposes of research and furthering our understanding of human development. Yeah, didn't think so...

Oh pipe down ....it's the definition of irony in this Uber evolved world we live in.....eye roll

 

[FreeBaGeL]

I feel like we hear stories like this every few years and then we just never hear about it again. Is there some secret evil lab somewhere that has some supervillain who has access to cloning and anti-ageing and infinite energy batteries and all this other stuff we see some big story about and then never hear about again?

 

[parrot]

My mind read "eyebrows" instead of "embryos". It's way less impressive but way more confusing that way.

 

[Dinsy Ejotuz]

Big deal. I created two of them myself.

I did one by accident. How hard can it be?

 

[Galileo]

Big deal. I created two of them myself.

I did one by accident. How hard can it be?

Without sperm and egg? That is the challenging, and interesting, part

 

[Mitchie]

So lemme get this straight........they wanna increase the killing of naturally created embryos, but at the same time, create synthetic ones in a lab......if that ain't a sign of the apocalypse, I don't know what is

OK, let's donate all those unwanted naturally created embryos that "they" (whoever they are) want to kill to science for purposes of research and furthering our understanding of human development. Yeah, didn't think so...

Oh pipe down ....it's the definition of irony in this Uber evolved world we live in.....eye roll

Not irony. this way we create the babies we want, make all the girls hot, all the guys ugly, in 18, ok 21 years, us old guys will be sitting pretty.