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In response to the technological advances of recent years, the International Society for Stem Cell Research today (May 26) released an updated version of its guidelines for basic and clinical research involving human stem cells and embryos. The ISSCR’s changes include recommendations for using human embryo models, lab-derived gametes, and human-animal chimeras as well as an end to the widely accepted two-week maximum for growing human embryos in culture.
“What has happened in the past . . . four years is that this area of research advanced really, really quickly and there have been multiple discoveries that put us in a position where we have no guidelines [for] the kind of things we are doing in the lab,” says developmental biologist Marta Shahbazi of the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the UK who was not involved with the development of the document. ...
