Scientists Create Human 'Pre-Embryo' for Research By Dennis Thompson HealthDay Reporter WEDNESDAY, March 17, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Research into miscarriages, infertility and birth defects is now primed to undergo revolutionary advances, thanks to the creation in the lab of an early stage of human embryos by two separate international teams of scientists. Both teams were able to use human cells to create artificial blastocysts, an early stage of conception that occurs a few days after egg fertilization but prior to the implantation and development of an embryo in the uterus. Until now, research into human blastocysts relied on embryo donations from in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures, which were scarce and difficult to obtain.