This was an unusual week in that three papers in a sense collided together related to embryo production and growth, raising new research possibilities but also serious ethical questions.
New research: what is an embryo & what is not?
The first two Nature papers reported generating the most realistic models of human embryos from scratch to date. The human embryo-like structures, called blastoids, were made from cells in the lab.
You can read more about them in this great piece here on The Niche by Ricki Lewis.
The third paper was also in Nature and came from a team led by Jacob Hanna. His team reported growing mouse embryos all the way through mid-gestation in the lab in vials (no mothers, no uteri), which is a big jump further than anything done before. The paper is entitled, “Ex utero mouse embryogenesis from pre-gastrulation to late organogenesis.”
I’m going to write another piece in a few days on the challenges and potential ethical difficulties that this new research raises. It’s not so simple to define how this is going to play out, especially when the different work is integrated moving forward.
Organoids that “cry”
Recently researchers have been making organoids of unusual types that make secretions including snake venom. The latest is organoids that are essentially tear glands. They can secrete tear-like substances. Here is the original article in Cell Stem Cell: Exploring the human lacrimal gland using organoids and single-cell sequencing.
The health potential here is to treat dry eye conditions, which can sometimes be severe.
More pubs & opinion
- SARS-CoV-2 infection of human iPSC-derived cardiac cells reflects cytopathic features in hearts of patients with COVID-19, Science Translational Medicine.
- Revamp of UK CRISPR regulation will require public trust, editorial by Nature.
- Integrated Collection of Stem Cell Bank Data, a Data Portal for Standardized Stem CellInformation, Stem Cell Reports.
- Skeletal muscle regeneration via the chemical induction and expansion of myogenic stem cells in situ or in vitro, Nature Biomedical Engineering.
- H3K27ac bookmarking promotes rapid post-mitotic activation of the pluripotent stem cellprogram without impacting 3D chromatin reorganization, Molecular Cell.
- Gene replacement of α-globin with β-globin restores hemoglobin balance in β-thalassemia-derived hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, Nature Medicine.
I’ve got a friend who suffers from a tear and saliva based deficiency disease. It almost sounds comical until you really hear how terrible it can affect quality of life, and ability to function in a job. Research like this is so important.