They are not human embryos and cannot be transferred to the uterus. however, An announcement of a new advance in science A week ago, biologists’ alarms went off. Two groups of researchers reported separatelys Prototypes of artificial embryos: ie, conceived without sperm or egg, but from stem cells. The whole process took place in laboratories and without any right other than to get scientific answers: Know what happens in the first days of life after conception.
Two labs star in discovery. The first is located in University of Cambridge (United Kingdom) and its progress was revealed through the newspaper Guardian. The second belongs to the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot (Israel). They are not the only ones working on these techniques, the aim of which is to reveal unknowns about the generation and evolution of human embryos.
“Right now There is no legal framework regulating these structures; They are very new and they are working on it,” he explains to EL MUNDO Alfonso Martinez Arias, ICREA Research Professor and Bioengineering Systems-MELIS researcher at Pompeu Fabra University. “If it wasn’t there Leaked to the British press, everything will continue to be done through the usual channels and the way it has been done till now. But the news accelerates this work in progress.
How this milestone was disseminated to society has drawn much criticism from the scientific community, which has been upset by what has come out since. For this reason, experts emphasize pure informational teaching with counseling. «It should be noted that these two works are not about artificial human embryos, but about embryos or artificial models of embryos.», says Gemma Marfany, professor of genetics at the University of Barcelona (UB) and head of the CIBERER Group. “In other words, they resemble embryos in the early stages of development, but they have not yet recaptured all the characteristics of an embryo. For example, they are not implanted because they fail and cannot develop.
Last Wednesday, GuardianIt included the intervention of Magdalena Zernica-CoetzA researcher leading an international team from the University of Cambridge and the California Institute of Technology-Caltech in which he exposed Creating artificial human embryos using stem cells. Al boom The news was followed by reactions from the scientific community, which could not make up its mind without more data than the British newspaper had collected.
Why did the alarms go off so early?
In the next 24 hours, Criticisms and alarms followed each other Before human embryos were apparently created without human material (sperm and eggs). But the pieces of the puzzle began to fall within hours. First, the team Jacob HannaWeizmann Institute, Published Preprint He exposed a similar achievement to a Cambridge group that reported—an article not peer-reviewed by independent scientists. And hours later Gernica-Coats Published by A Similar document.
Both are researchers They already published the previous steps To achieve embryonic prototypes from stem cells In animal models, especially in mice. They have done so in articles in prestigious journals: Nature In the case of Zernicka-Goetz and the same journal, in addn GoIt contains Hannah’s case.
What do we know now? With subtle differences in development, the two researchers introduced the world to the possibility of creating embryos from stem cells. Allowing advances in knowledge of embryonic evolution 5th to 14th day of pregnancy.
Gemma Marfani insists on purpose: «We may ask ourselves why these experiments are being conducted. Now, from the seventh day of conception, since it has to implant in the mother’s womb, to know how the human embryo develops, It was a big black box».
As a professor of genetics explains, «All the information we have comes from studying other mammals, like a mouse”, but we are not all alike. Why are some couples infertile? Why do normal embryos obtained through in vitro fertilization not implant and develop properly? Can what we know about mouse embryonic development be extrapolated to humans? These types of questions can be answered through these types of studies.
What are these artificial embryo models used for?
At the moment, the only thing going on with these jobs is basic research: answering questions and learning more about embryonic biology. “In its current form, These models are no better than testing what can be doneBut they have a lot of work to do before they can serve as reference models for pathology or infant loss,” says Martínez Arias.
Light is important in the first leaves of the development of human life. Every day the moment of natural conception gets more late Y Everything is betting on experimental fertility treatments, but not all events have a happy ending. “We know now that it doesn’t have a direct impact, but in the future, yes: we have to see what the growth is,” says Clara González Lacostera, a biologist and member of the Dexius mujer’s reproductive service. Healthcare Ethics Committee of Quiron Hospitals from Barcelona.
Along with her, Joaquín Llácer, Medical Director of Ginefiv Clinics, highlights the importance of this progress for science, even if not from the point of view of fertility treatment: “It is not going to change the way we carry out these procedures ». And he qualifies: “Until now the ethical and technical limits to keep embryos beyond the fifth or sixth day This will allow us to investigate the complexities of early embryonic development.”
What ethical questions do embryos raise?
While answers are coming to the field of fertility, another aspect that demands attention is RRegulation of processes. “It’s urgent to study how the field is progressing because the law is always behind the test,” asserts Marfani. “Yes Although not yet implanted, we know that advanced embryos have been obtained. How long to wait to answer the big questions? When do we consider a fetus to be a human being or has the potential to be? This is almost a philosophical question, but whose truth is about biology and bioethics. There is a lack of legal and biological framework to determine the extent to which it can be investigated.
Here ethical gaps arise. The Current international law as outlined by the International Society for Stem Cell Research It updated its guidelines for clinical stem cell research and translation in 2021 to include emerging advances. In this chapter, Made room for stem cell-based models of embryosResearch with human embryos, chimeras, organoids and gene editing.
Because of the high potential for these achievements to unlock, they prefer to tie everything up before they arrive, rather than organizing them after the fact. In our country, I explained a few days ago Íñigo de Miguel Beriain, biologist and researcher at the Ikerbasque UPV/EHU, the first point of Article 33 of Law 14/2007 on Biomedical Research establishes a strict ban on the creation of human embryos for research purposes. Its second point expressly states that “the use of any technique for obtaining human stem cells for therapeutic or research purposes is permitted.”
In this sense, Marbani explains the urgency: “For now None of these synthetic models are capable of sustaining their growth and therefore fail if implemented.. But we must not wait until they are fixed to decide how we shall define when it is inquired into.
It almost answers one of the arguments exposed by de Miguel Berrien: «Question: Are artificial embryos real embryos? Hard to say, really. In Spain, it is almost certain that they will not be classified now, since the aforementioned Law 14/2007 considers the result of conception only as a fetus.
Different mechanisms and implications
Until this debate is resolved, science must continue to advance science. For González Llagostera, the presence of these mechanisms for investigation is good news. «Research is the most selective option for surplus embryos in fertility procedures. Written consent of both father and mother must be given. The most important thing is to first have a research project; They simply don’t happen.”
Systematic gaps are included with ethical doubts They make these developments appear to be a complete competition between the two laboratories. A frenzy not only among the society but also among the scientists who saw successive publications on the same subject in a short period of time.
“Yes, It seems that they are competing to get the artificial embryo through different methods, although fundamentally similar”, says Marfani. “There’s clearly a rivalry and maybe that explains the statement, in my opinion, Gernica-Goetz, obviously I don’t understand that,” admits Martínez Arias.
The ICREA research professor emphasizes the consequences of the emergency declaration in a clear reference to Hanna’s group’s reaction. “This led to the release Preprints Certainly there is a journal or review from other labs exposing the Cambridge-Caltech team. In fact, in March, At a seminar in Japan Hanna made a communication about her progress without further emphasis rather than a scientific environment.
Regarding the possibility that the two labs could collaborate, Martínez Arias is clear: “I doubt that they will be able to form an alliance.” Bickering aside, Marfani comments, “Both groups use embryonic cells that differentiate individually and then fuse these cells together to form different components of an embryo with its amniotic sac. They are not embryos created by in vitro fertilization, but embryos created by a collection of genetically manipulated embryonic cells. So they can form different tissues of an embryo. During this time, they can’t get beyond something like an embryo in 14 days of development.
The ICREA professor also has doubts about the method used. «Gernica-Coats cell clusters are produced by genetic manipulations – This explains the defects they exhibit- Hanna’s are derived only by manipulating extracellular signals. In this sense, the similarity of the second model, by proving that it is possible, suggests the ethical debate: are these models equivalent to the embryo?».
That’s why Martínez Arias ends up pointing it outCambridge-Caltech’s work ‘must be better’ Must be useful. “In Wiseman’s case, The current problem is very low numbers (two out of 100 crops are thriving)., which does not allow multiple applications. But in the next five years, this will change, which is why we need to think fast.”
