In vitro embryo models grown from stem cells could provide scientists with unprecedented access to study the earliest stages in the development of an organism. A major hurdle in this area of research has been sustaining embryonic stem cells to the point where structures such as the brain and heart are able to form. Recently, researchers from the University of Cambridge and Caltech have overcome this hurdle and generated a “synthetic” mouse model embryo from stem cells that contains both a beating heart and the foundations of a brain and all other organs in the mouse body.
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