The first lineage decisions in mammalian embryonic development are made shortly after a wave of transcriptional activation that acts as a wake-up call for the sleeping embryonic genome to claim the ...

Researchers have used stem cells to develop new human embryolike structures that model the earliest stages of fetal development so realistically that they even secrete hormones that can turn a lab ...

Scientists have created a stem cell-derived model of the human embryo in the lab by reprogramming human stem cells. The breakthrough could help research into genetic disorders and in understanding why ...

In A Nutshell Egg geometry drives development: The curved shape of a zebrafish egg causes unequal cell divisions, creating larger cells near the animal pole and smaller cells at the margin—a size ...

The first steps of human development—those that occur within the first few weeks of pregnancy—remain mysterious in many ways. Within a week of fertilization, human embryos form a blastocyst, which ...

Using the fruit fly, scientists have constructed a complete and detailed single-cell map of embryo development. This research will also help scientists pursue questions like how mutations lead to ...

A stretch of viral DNA in the mouse genome gives cells in early-stage embryos the potential to become almost any cell type in ...

Scientists have uncovered a new way embryonic cells divide when conventional mechanisms fail. Cell division underpins all ...

A research team showed that, contrary to current models, one early embryonic cell dominates lineages that will become the fetus. “They are not identical,” said Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, a ...

As the climate changes, scientists are concerned about how well plants and animals will adapt to rapid warming. A new ...