Human trials of artificial wombs could start soon. Here’s what you need to know
By Max Kozlov,
Nature
| 09. 14. 2023
A hairless, pale-skinned lamb lies on its side in what appears to be an oversized sandwich bag filled with hazy fluid. Its eyes are closed, and its snout and limbs jerk as if the animal — which is only about three-quarters of the way through its gestation period — is dreaming.
The lamb was one of eight in a 2017 artificial-womb experiment carried out by researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) in Pennsylvania. When the team published its research1 in April of that year, it released a video of the experiments that spread widely and captured imaginations — for some, evoking science-fiction fantasies of humans being conceived and grown entirely in a laboratory.
Now, the researchers at CHOP are seeking approval for the first human clinical trials of the device they’ve been testing, named the Extra-uterine Environment for Newborn Development, or EXTEND. The team has emphasized that the technology is not intended — or able — to support development from conception to birth. Instead, the scientists hope that simulating some elements of a natural womb will increase...
Related Articles
By Emily Mullin, Wired | 11.14.2023
In a small initial test in people, researchers have shown that a single infusion of a novel gene-editing treatment can reduce cholesterol, the fatty substance that clogs and hardens arteries over time.
The gene-editing treatment aims to permanently lower cholesterol...
By Carissa Wong, Nature | 11.16.2023
In a world first, the UK medicines regulator has approved a therapy that uses the CRISPR–Cas9 gene-editing tool as a treatment. The decision marks another high point for a biotechnology that has been lauded as revolutionary in the decade since...
By Emily Mullin, Wired | 11.16.2023
The first medical treatment that uses Crispr gene editing was authorized Thursday by the United Kingdom.
The one-time therapy, which will be sold under the brand name Casgevy, is for patients with sickle cell disease and a related blood disorder...
By Alexis Heng, UCA News | 11.13.2023
In recent years, Singapore has increasingly leveraged new reproductive technologies to overcome the country's rapidly aging demographics and dismal fertility rate, which hit a new low in 2022.
Hence, it would be timely for Singapore’s Bioethics Advisory Committee (BAC) to...