Renewal Bio, an Israeli start-up, has announced its intention to artificially grow humans in the embryonic stage to produce tissue for the life extension of its customers. The company plans to use artificial wombs, an innovation of stem cell technology developed by scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science, to grow embryos that can be used for organ harvesting. The harvested tissue will then be used to extend the lives of customers. The method has already been used to grow mouse embryos in artificial wombs, resulting in embryos with beating hearts, skull folds, and blood flow. The experiment was a world premiere, and according to Bernard Siegel from the World Stem Cell Summit, it has enormous implications.
The researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science are already working on transferring the technology to humans. The goal is to create artificial human embryos that resemble a natural baby that is about two months old, with tiny limbs and basic organs already present. Although the embryo is artificial, it develops the human body in a natural way. The method’s current success rate is less than one percent, and many of the artificial mouse embryos did not develop correctly, with frequent anomalies such as heart problems.
Renewal Bio sees the method’s potential in longevity medicine as very diverse, including strengthening the immune system of older people with embryonic blood cells and creating a young egg for fertilization from an embryonic copy of an age-related infertile woman. However, the company has not yet disclosed how it plans to implement these and other potential uses. The ethical concerns surrounding synthetic embryos are also a topic of debate in the scientific community, with questions about whether they should have rights and whether they can be used as the basis for medicine and science. Despite the controversy, the researchers believe that the ethical concerns can be addressed.
Renewal Bio has licensed the method from the Weizmann Institute of Science and is also working to improve the incubation technology and embryo monitoring. However, the company is still in the early stages of development, and it will be a long time before the first humans are treated with tissue from artificial embryos.
