Excerpt
Israeli scientists grow human embryo models from stem cells
SEPTEMBER 7, 2023.
Without needing human sperm to impregnate human eggs to create embryos, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot have created complete models of human embryos from stem cells cultured in the lab and managed to grow them without a womb up to the 14th day.
The team built on their recent achievement of creating synthetic stem cell–based models of mouse embryos.
The team said their breakthrough could open new avenues of research into infertility, early pregnancy failure, birth defects, drug testing and growth of tissues for transplant – as well as help scientists peer into the dramatic first weeks of embryonic development.
How to create models of human embryos
A research team headed by Prof. Jacob (Yaqub) Hanna has created complete models of human embryos from stem cells cultured in the lab – and managed to grow them outside the womb up to day 14. As just published in the prestigious journal Nature under the title “Complete human day 14 post-implantation embryo models from naïve ES cells,” the synthetic embryo models had all the structures and compartments characteristic of this stage including the placenta, yolk sac, chorionic sac and other external tissues that ensure the models’ dynamic and adequate growth.
Born in Rama, a Christian (and Druze) village in the Galilee region of Israel, Dr. Jacob (Yaqub) Hanna earned his doctoral degree in microbiology and immunology and an MD in clinical medicine from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He conducted postdoctoral research at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Massachusetts and joined the Weizmann Institute in 2011. h was greatly influenced and inspired by the success of his uncle, Nabil Hanna, who invented the first antibody therapy approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in humans (Rituxan, a blockbuster anti-CD20 mAb drug for treatment of non-Hodgkin lymphoma).
He is a pioneer in induced pluripotency and reprogramming of adult cells that have regenerative properties almost identical to those of embryonic stem cells, but can be created from adult cells without using an egg or fetal material. Today, he leads an interdisciplinary group of scientists interested in understanding embryonic stem cell biology, early development and advanced human disease
Little is known about the early embryo because it’s so hard to study for both ethical and technical reasons, yet its initial stages are crucial to its future development. During these stages, the clump of cells that implants itself in the womb on the seventh day of its existence becomes, within three to four weeks, a well-structured embryo that already contains all the body organs. Given their authentic complexity, the human embryo models developed by his team could provide an unprecedented opportunity to shed new light on the embryo’s mysterious beginnings.
“The drama is in the first month, and the remaining eight months of pregnancy are mainly lots of growth,” Hanna said. “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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