Scientists have been able to make and study human embryos in their labs for decades. But they have never been able to keep them alive outside a woman’s womb for more than about a week.
Tag: embryos
Gene-Editing Research in Human Embryos Gains Momentum
At the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Fredrik Lanner is preparing to edit genes in human embryos. It’s the kind of research that sparked an international frenzy in April last year, when a Chinese team revealed that it had done the world’s first such experiments.
Mammal Embryos Develop Normally in Space
It seems increasingly plausible that humans will colonize space. But to continue the human race as we know it, we would have to reproduce in space. Up until now, scientists weren’t sure that was possible—one 2009 study conducted in simulated zero gravity, and another done in 1996 in which NASA scientists sent embryos to space, did not see any mammalian embryos develop.
Chinese Scientists Genetically Modify Human Embryos for the Second Time
Scientists in China have reported genetically modifying human embryos in what is only the second published experiment of its kind. Last year, a different team of Chinese researchers edited human embryos in an attempt to remove genes responsible for a dangerous blood disorder. In this new research, scientists from Guangzhou Medical University tried to add a mutation to embryos instead, attempting to make them HIV-resistant. In both cases, the experiments were only partially successful, and were carried out using non-viable human embryos that were incapable of growing into adults.
Individual Cells in Four-Cell Embryos Chase Different Fates
To reveal new details of preimplantation development in mammals, scientists based at the University of Cambridge and European Bioinformatics Institute of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL-EBI) tracked gene expression in mouse embryos. These scientists found that divergent developmental paths emerge as early as the second day after conception, when embryos consist of no more than four cells.
In Vitro Fertilization Bill Would Define Embryos as Human Life
Jasha McQueen created four embryos with her
then-husband through in vitro fertilization (IVF) in 2007. Two of those embryos
became her twin sons, but the other two have become the subject of a lengthy
and grueling court battle when McQueen and her husband started divorce
proceedings in 2010.
The Genetic Technology Revolution- Editorial
One of the most exciting and promising developments in the history of medical science may bypass the U.S. if Congress fails to act. It needs to lift the ban on federal spending on research involving human embryos.
Gene Editing: The Next Frontier in America’s Abortion Wars
Activists on both sides of the abortion debate now have a common enemy — the use of a powerful new gene editing technology to tinker with the human race. That may seem like an idea from a sci-fi flick, but it’s already here. The gene-editing technique is already used in research and has the potential to modify human DNA with unprecedented ease in the not-too-distant future. British regulators approved limited experiments in human embryos earlier this month.
Oncogene Controls Stem Cells in Early Embryonic Development
After a gestation period of around ten months, fawns are born in early summer – when the weather is warm and food is plentiful for the mother. Six months would actually be enough for the embryo’s development, but then offspring from mating in the later portion of summer would be born in winter. Therefore, nature prolongs the gestation period by a hormone-regulated pause in the development of the early embryos. Many animal species use this process, called diapause, to adjust their reproduction to environmental conditions.
California Considers Funding Controversial Research: Editing Genes in Human Embryos
The California Institute of Regenerative Medicine was created in 2004 to fund stem cell research, after the federal government stopped paying for most experiments with human embryos. Now the state agency is considering underwriting another controversial use of embryos that the federal government won’t support — editing their genes.