Scientists have claimed to have grown a being that closely resembles an early human embryo from stem cells, without sperm or eggs, producing a real textbook example of the human embryo.
The Weizmann Institute team claims that its stem cell-created "embryo model" resembles a textbook illustration of a genuine 14-day-old human embryo.
It even generated hormones that caused a laboratory pregnancy test to become positive.
The goal of embryo models is to offer a moral framework for comprehending the infancy of human existence.
A lot happens in the first few weeks after a sperm fertilises an egg, going from a jumble of fuzzy cells to something that can eventually be seen on a baby ultrasound, BBC reported.
Though little is known about this critical period, it is a significant cause of miscarriage and birth abnormalities.
"It's a black box and that's not a cliche - our knowledge is very limited," Prof Jacob Hanna, from the Weizmann Institute of Science, tells me.
All aspects of embryo research are technically, morally, and legally complex. But a rapidly expanding discipline currently mimics the growth of an embryo naturally.
This research, published in the journal Nature, is described by the Israeli team as the first "complete" embryo model for mimicking all the key structures that emerge in the early embryo.
"This is really a textbook image of a human day-14 embryo," Prof Hanna says, which "hasn't been done before".
Naive stem cells that had been genetically modified to acquire the capacity to develop into any sort of bodily tissue served as the beginning material instead of sperm and an egg.
Following that, chemicals were employed to induce the four cell types seen in the early stages of the human embryo from these stem cells:
1. Epiblast cells, which become the embryo proper (or foetus).
2. Trophoblast cells, which become the placenta.
3. Hypoblast cells, which become the supportive yolk sac.
4. Extraembryonic mesoderm cells.
The scientists carefully combined 120 of these cells in a certain ratio before stepping aside to observe.
About 1% of the mixture started the process of building itself spontaneously into a structure that resembles, but differs from, a human embryo.
"I give great credit to the cells - you have to bring the right mix and have the right environment and it just takes off," Prof Hanna says. "That's an amazing phenomenon."
Scientists are hoping that using embryo models would enable them to better comprehend hereditary or genetic illnesses, see the earliest stages of organ development, and explain how various cell types originate.
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