Baby-making ‘WITHOUT sperm or eggs’After man-made embryos are grown in a lab for the first time, it could become a reality

Scientists have created a synthetic embryo, without the use of sperm, eggs or wombs for the first time.

This groundbreaking discovery is not meant to create babies outside the womb.

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Instead, the goal is to eventually produce replacement organs for human beings.

Experts have created fake embryos, which are not fertilised eggs, using stem cells from mice.

Within a little more than a week, these embryolike structures were self-assembled with a rudimentary beating heart and blood circulation.

They were placed in an artificial womb and stopped growing after eight days.

“The embryo is the best organ-making machine and the best 3D bioprinter,” said project leader Professor Jacob Hanna, from the Weizmann Institute in Israel.

“We tried to emulate what it does.”

While synthetic embryos may not be exactly the same as natural mouse embryos, they did show signs of functioning.

Scientists are hopeful that this breakthrough will enable them to better understand how tissues and organs form in the early stages.

“Our next challenge is to understand how stem cells know what to do – how they self-assemble into organs and find their way to their assigned spots inside an embryo,”He went on.

“And because our system, unlike a womb, is transparent, it may prove useful for modeling birth and implantation defects of human embryos.”

It could also lead to less animal testing.

The Cell journal published the research.

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