.jpg)
.png)
Revolutions in fertility on the horizon
A recent breakthrough in growing embryos will improve fertility treatments and revolutionise knowledge of the earliest steps to human life
5 May 2016, 10:43am
Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
1 min read
Scientists are pushing the legal limits in a plight to understand the early stages of human development
For the first time, scientist have been able to grow embryos past the point at which they would normally implant in the womb. The research, in the UK and US, was stopped just before the embryos reached the legal limit of 14-days old, far beyond anything that has been achieved before.
But in an ethically-charged move, some scientists have already called for the 14-day limit to be changed.
The limit was previously about a week used to be the limit - with scientists able to grow a fertilised egg up to the stage it would normally implant into the womb. But they have now found a way to chemically mimic the womb to allow an embryo to continue developing until the two-week stage.
The creation of the artificial environment requires a combination of a nutrient-rich medium and a structure the embryo can implant upon.
The research is already providing insight into how an embryo starts the process of organising itself into a human being.
It is a crucial time when many embryos acquire developmental defects or fail to implant.
