Scientists use artificial womb for research into embryos

The Engineer: Scientists at Nottingham University have developed an artificial womb to aid research into how early embryos develop. The new device is effectively a soft polymer bowl that mimics the tissue of a mammal’s uterus in order to grow mouse embryos outside the body for long enough to observe the embryo developing in the vital first eight days of life.

Research leader and professor of tissue engineering Kevin Shakesheff said studying the way the body generates new cells at an early stage could lead to treatments for otherwise untreatable conditions. ‘There are a lot of diseases that involve adult patients losing the functions of certain tissues, for example, after a heart attack and, as adults, we can’t repair that spontaneously. ‘But everybody did grow those tissues themselves when they were an embryo in a matter of a few weeks. We want to know what’s happening in the embryo better and see if we can use that as a way of growing adult tissue from adult stem cells.’

Editor: What happens to the embryos when they've completed their observations?