A research team in the UK and US has created “synthetic” mouse embryos that went on to develop a brain, a nerve cord and beating heart tissue in the lab without the need for a fertilised egg or uterus for it to grow in.
It is similar to a breakthrough by an Israeli team, published earlier this month. Together, the breakthroughs promise to revolutionise the understanding of one of biology’s greatest challenges: how a few cells go on to organise themselves into life.
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