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Debate ethics of embryo models from stem cells

International discussion must guide research, urge Nicolas Rivron, Martin Pera and colleagues.
  1. Nicolas Rivron

    1. Nicolas Rivron leads the laboratory for synthetic embryology both at the MERLN Institute, Maastricht University, Maastricht; and at the Hubrecht Institute (KNAW), Utrecht, the Netherlands.

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  2. Martin Pera

    1. Martin Pera is a professor at the Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine, USA.

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  3. Janet Rossant

    1. Janet Rossant is at the University of Toronto, Canada.

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  4. Alfonso Martinez Arias

    1. Alfonso Martinez Arias is at the University of Cambridge, UK.

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  5. Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz

    1. Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz is at the University of Cambridge, UK.

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  6. Jianping Fu

    1. Jianping Fu is at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.

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  7. Susanne van den Brink

    1. Susanne van den Brink is at the Hubrecht Institute (KNAW), the Netherlands.

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  8. Annelien Bredenoord

    1. Annelien Bredenoord is at Utrecht University, the Netherlands.

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  9. Wybo Dondorp

    1. Wybo Dondorp is at Maastricht University, the Netherlands.

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  10. Guido de Wert

    1. Guido de Wert is at Maastricht University, the Netherlands.

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  11. Insoo Hyun

    1. Insoo Hyun is at Case Western Reserve University, USA.

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  12. Megan Munsie

    1. Megan Munsie is at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

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  13. Rosario Isasi

    1. Rosario Isasi is at the University of Florida, USA.

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Over the past five years, various studies have shown that mouse and human stem cells can spontaneously organize in a dish into 3D structures that are increasingly similar to mouse1–5 or human6–8 embryos. All that is needed is the right number and combination of cells, growth factors and, sometimes, a means of physically confining the cells, such as in microwells8.

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Nature 564, 183-185 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-07663-9

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