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What if stem cells turn into embryos in a dish?

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Abstract

Recent studies show that pluripotent stem cells can undergo self-organized development in vitro into structures that mimic the body plan of the post-implantation embryo. Modeling human embryogenesis in a dish opens up new possibilities for the study of early development and developmental disorders, but it may also raise substantial ethical concerns.

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Author notes

  1. Patrick P Tam: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

    Martin F Pera & Megan Munsie

  2. The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

    Martin F Pera

  3. The Florey Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

    Martin F Pera

  4. Department of Health, Ethics & Society, Research Schools Care and Public Health Research Institute and GROW School for Oncology and Developmental Biology, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Guido de Wert & Wybo Dondorp

  5. Francis Crick Institute, Mill Hill, London, UK

    Robin Lovell-Badge

  6. Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Christine L Mummery

  7. Embryology Unit, Children's Medical Research Institute, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia

    Patrick P Tam

  8. Discipline of Medicine, Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Patrick P Tam

Authors
  1. Martin F Pera
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  2. Guido de Wert
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  3. Wybo Dondorp
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  4. Robin Lovell-Badge
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  5. Christine L Mummery
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  6. Megan Munsie
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  7. Patrick P Tam
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Martin F Pera.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Pera, M., de Wert, G., Dondorp, W. et al. What if stem cells turn into embryos in a dish?. Nat Methods 12, 917–919 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.3586

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.3586

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