A team of researchers from the United States and the United Kingdom has developed a synthetic human embryo-like structure from stem cells for the first time without requiring eggs or sperm. The structures lack a beating heart and a brain, but they contain cells that can develop into the placenta, yolk sac, and embryo.

This discovery can help to understand hereditary illnesses and causes of miscarriage. 

Professor Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, a professor of biology and biological engineering at both the University of Cambridge in the UK and California Institute of Technology (CalTech) in the US, has created an embryo model through the use of stem cells - the bodys versatile cells that can transform into a wide range of cell types.

Each structure in the model was produced from a single embryonic stem cell. It has reached the start of a developmental stage known as gastrulation, in which the embryo shifts from being a continuous sheet of cells to generating separate cell lines and establishing the fundamental axis of the body. 

Prof. Zernicka-Goetz said that the embryo does not have a beating heart, gut, or the beginnings of a brain at this stage. However, the model showed the presence of primordial cells, which are the precursor cells of egg and sperm. She added that the embryos were developed to a stage equivalent to natural embryos on the 14^th day of development.

She noted that this human model is the first three-lineage human embryo model that specifies amnion and germ cells, precursor cells of egg and sperm.

(Source:https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/health/researchers-develop-first-synthetic-human-embryo-without-egg-and-sperm-517373 )