The organization wants to create artificial embryos with DNA for organ transplantation


  • An Israeli company wants to replicate a successful mouse embryo experiment with human cells.
  • The company, Renewal Bio, wants to make “humanity young and healthy” using its technology.
  • The use of artificial embryos has raised ethical concerns in the scientific community.

An Israeli biotech company is looking to repeat a recent experiment that successfully created artificial mouse embryos from stem cells – this time only with human cells.

Scientists in Weizmann’s Department of Molecular Genetics have grown synthetic mouse embryos in a jar without using sperm, eggs or ovaries, according to a paper published August 1 in the journal Cell. It’s over, Insider Marianne Gunot reports.

Cloned embryos cannot develop into fully formed mice and are therefore “not real”, Jacob Hanna, who led the experiment, told the Guardian. However, scientists have observed that artificial embryos have a heartbeat, blood circulation, the beginnings of a brain, a neural tube and an intestinal tract.

After the success of the mouse experiment, Hanna told MIT Technology Review that he is working to replicate the results in human cells, including his own.

“The embryo is the best organ-making machine and the best 3D bioprinter — we’ve tried to mimic what it does,” Hanna said in a statement.

Other experts say more research is needed before artificial human embryos are available.

Renewal Bio, an Israeli company founded by Hanna, wants to apply this science to organ transplants for infertility, genetic diseases and aging-related issues.

For example, MIT Technology Review reports that blood cells from the fetus can help boost immune systems.

Renewal Bio believes some of the world’s most pressing problems are “declining birth rates and rapidly aging populations,” according to the company’s website.

“To solve these complex and complex issues, Renewal Bio aims to harness the power of new stem cell technology to make humanity younger and healthier,” the website reads.

Omri Amirav-Drori, Acting CEO of Renewed Bio, told MIT Technology Review that the company doesn’t want to “overpromise” or scare people away, but Hanna’s experiment is “impressive.”

The use of human embryo clones for research has repeatedly raised ethical concerns in the scientific community, including the potential for artificial embryos to experience pain or sentience, according to a 2017 paper published in the journal eLife.

Hanna told MIT Technology Review that he could address these ethical concerns by creating artificial human embryos “without lungs, hearts or brains.”



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