Credit: Monash University
AUSTRALIAN - LED INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH TEAM GENERATES THE FIRST MODEL OF EARLY HUMAN EMBRYOS FROM SKIN CELLS
In a discovery that will revolutionize research into the causes of early miscarriage, infertility and the study of early human development - an international team of scientists led by Monash University in Melbourne, Australia has generated a model of a human embryo from skin cells.
The team, led by Professor Jose Polo, has successfully reprogrammed these fibroblasts or skin cells into a 3-dimensional cellular structure that is morphologically and molecularly similar to human blastocysts. Called iBlastoids, these can be used to model the biology of early human embryos in the laboratory.
Monash University
Australian-led international research team generates the first model of early human embryos from skin cells
In a discovery that will revolutionise research into the causes of early miscarriage, infertility and the study of early human development – an international team of scientists led by Monash University in Melbourne, Australia has generated a model of a human embryo from skin cells.
The team, led by Professor Jose Polo, has successfully reprogrammed these fibroblasts or skin cells into a 3-dimensional cellular structure that is morphologically and molecularly similar to human blastocysts. Called iBlastoids, these can be used to model the biology of early human embryos in the laboratory.
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A team of Melbourne-based researchers believe they have taken a significant step towards unlocking the regenerative power of the stem cells in our muscles, after six years of experiments on fish isolated a signal that turns on the cells.
In mice, a dose of the signalling chemical prompts stem cells to begin knitting together otherwise-unrepairable wounds.
Peter Currie in the fish lab at Monash Universityâs Clayton campus.
Credit:Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute / Supplied
The teamâs discovery is published on Thursday in
Nature, and talks are already under way with pharma companies to test it as a treatment for muscular dystrophy â and ageing.