Scientists in Israel have created a model of a human embryo from stem cells, without using sperm, eggs or a womb. A team at Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science made the model, which resembles an embryo at day 14, when it acquires internal structures but before it lays down the foundations for body organs, and the work was published in the journal Nature. But the scientists involved said it would take a long time yet to create an embryo from scratch. Team leader Jacob Hanna said the team took stem cells derived from adult human skin cells, as well as others cultured in the lab, then reverted the cells to an early state.They then manipulated them to make a model of an embryo, rather than an actual or synthetic one. "The question is, when does an embryo model become considered an embryo? When that happens, we know the regulations. At the moment we are really, really far off from that point," Hanna said. However, they said the work could open the door to new ways to test the effect of drugs on pregnancies, better understand miscarriages and genetic diseases, and maybe grow transplant tissues and organs. "They are not identical. There are differences from human embryos, but still, this is the first time, if you open an atlas or a textbook, you can say - yeah I can really see the similarity between them," said Hanna. "In about 1 percent of the aggregates we can see that the cells start differentiating correctly, migrating and sorting themselves into the correct structure, and the farthest we could get is day 14 in human embryo development," he said. Their next goal, Hanna said, is to advance to day 21 and also reach a threshold of a 50 per cent success rate. Magdalena Żernicka-Goetz, a professor of development and stem cells at the University of Cambridge, said the study joins six other similar human embryo-like models published from teams around the world this year, including from her lab. "None of these models fully recapitulate natural human development but each adds to ways in which many aspects of human development can now be studied experimentally," she said. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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GoFundMe has deleted an OnlyFans model's campaign after she offered nudes to anyone who donated $10 to Maui wildfire victims. Mariah Casillas, also known as 'Lavaxgrll' had created a GoFundMe to help raise money for those in Maui who have been affected by the wildfires that have tragically claimed up to 100 lives so far. In order to raise as much money as possible, Casillas offered to send nudes to anyone who proved that they had donated $10 or more to her campaign. It seemed to be working as Casillas managed to raise over $6,000 in just a couple of days, but GoFundMe removed the campaign. Meaning that all the money raised went with it, too. In response to GoFundMe's move, Casillas took to social media to reassure fans that she was not going to let it stop her from raising money. "GoFundMe took down my account but that isn't going to stop me from doing what I can to help the people of Maui," she wrote. "I'll be making a list of nonprofits to donate towards instead, you can still send me your screenshots!" It seems that GoFundMe took down Casillas' campaign as it violated its services that state GoFundMe can't be used to raise funds if they involve, "offensive, graphic, perverse or sensitive or sexual content." In order to keep raising money, Casillas has moved her fundraiser to OnlyFans telling subscribers to "drop your donations on my pinned post and let's get to work." On Wednesday a GoFundMe spokesperson told FOX Business that its platform had raised over $30 million for the communities needing support in the aftermath of the wildfires. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter

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