Israel Scientists Create Human Embryos Free of Sperm, Eggs and Womb

• Salma Hossein
• . September 8, 2023
• . Update: September 9, 2023 7:17 am
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Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science have successfully created complete models of human embryos from stem cells and managed to grow in a lab without a womb. They believe this breakthrough could open new avenues of research into infertility, early pregnancy failure, birth defects, drug testing and growth of tissues for transplant. 

The team of researchers, led by Professor Jacob Hanna, managed to grow the models of human embryos outside the womb up to day 14. Hanna believes drama is in the first month, and the remaining eight months of pregnancy are mainly lots of growth. “The first month is still largely a black box. Our stem cell-derived human embryo model offers an ethical and accessible way of peering into this box. It closely mimics the development of a real human embryo, particularly the emergence of its exquisitely fine architecture.” 

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He highlighted that the scientists made no use of fertilized eggs or a womb. They used human cells (pluripotent stem cells) which have the potential to differentiate into many cell types. The researchers reprogrammed pluripotent stem cells to turn the clock further back. They went as far back as the naïve state, in which the cells are capable of becoming anything – any cell type. 

The scientists divided the cells into three groups and the cells for embryo were left as is. Hanna explained the cells in the groups were treated only with chemicals, without the need for genetic modification to turn on certain genes. “The stem cell-based embryo-like structures developed normally outside the womb for eight days, reaching a developmental stage equivalent to day no. 14 in human embryonic development that is the point at which natural embryos acquire the internal structures that enable them to proceed to the next stage.” 

The professor said that an embryo is not static. “It must have the right cells in the right organization, and it must be able to progress – it’s about being and becoming.”