Embryonic Development News and Research

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Embryonic development or embryogenesis is the process by which the embryo is formed and develops. It starts with the fertilization of the ovum, egg, which, after fertilization, is then called a zygote. The zygote undergoes rapid mitotic divisions, the formation of two exact genetic replicates of the original cell, with no significant growth (a process known as cleavage) and cellular differentiation, leading to development of an embryo.

Research: Critical aspects of human genome's regulatory program encoded by genomic sequence elements

Since the classical studies of Jacob and Monod in the early 1960s, it has been evident that genome sequences contain not only blueprints for genes and the proteins that they encode, but also the instructions for a coordinated regulatory program that governs when, where and to what extent these genes and proteins are expressed.

4 Aug 2015

Study demonstrates significance of EMT as potential therapeutic target for reversing kidney disease

Adults who are worried or terrified sometimes curl up into a fetal position. Likewise, adult cells that are injured, including genetic injury leading to cancer, initiate a process that was present during embryonic development.

4 Aug 2015

Researchers establish safety, dosing of new drug for treating blood cancers

Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have established the safety and dosing of a new drug for treating blood cancers. The findings are published online July 27 in The Lancet Haematology.

29 Jul 2015

Vital molecular mechanism in plants has similarities to certain signaling mechanisms in humans

Scientists at Van Andel Research Institute have revealed an important molecular mechanism in plants that has significant similarities to certain signaling mechanisms in humans, which are closely linked to early embryonic development and to diseases such as cancer.

25 Jul 2015

IRB Barcelona scientists provide molecular details about Seckel Syndrome

Today in Nature Communications, scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) provide molecular details about Seckel Syndrome, a rare disease that causes microcephaly, or small brain, and growth delays.

8 Jul 2015

Breast tumors have something in common with embryos, say MD Anderson researchers

It may seem incredulous, but breast tumors may have something in common with embryos ... at least in mice, say researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

1 Jul 2015

TSRI scientists awarded $2.1 million grant to study protein closely linked to Parkinson's disease

Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have been awarded $2.1 million from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of The National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study a protein that has been closely linked in animal models to Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease.

10 Jun 2015

Researchers reveal that 6.5% of de novo genetic mutations occur during embryonic development

Until now, de novo genetic mutations, alterations in a gene found for the first time in one family member, were believed to be mainly the result of new mutations in the sperm or eggs (germline) of one of the parents and passed on to their child.

7 Jun 2015

Oxygen regulatory pathway can act to trigger tissue regeneration in mice

A study led by Ellen Heber-Katz, PhD, of the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research, part of Main Line Health, shows that a primordial form of energy production that still exists in mammals can be harnessed to achieve spontaneous tissue regeneration in mice, without the need for added stem cells.

4 Jun 2015

$Study analyses advantages of using fractions of ejaculate in IVF$

Study analyses advantages of using fractions of ejaculate in IVF

Sperm in the first fraction of ejaculate are more numerous, move more and present better quality DNA than those lagging behind. This is the conclusion of a study led by the Ginemed fertility clinic, which confirms that while the objective of the first fraction is to fertilise the egg, the second phase is so that no sperm from any other male has a chance to fertilise it.

27 May 2015

Scientists reveal how lymphatic system develops in embryo

For over one hundred years, scientists have debated the question of the origins of the lymphatic system - a parallel system to the blood vessels that serves as a conduit for everything from immune cells to fat molecules to cancer cells. This issue has now been resolved by Dr. Karina Yaniv of Weizmann Institute's Biological Regulation Department. In a study reported online today in Nature, she and her team revealed how the lymphatic system develops in the embryo and for the first time managed to grow lymphatic cells in the lab.

21 May 2015

Nerve cells guide each other during embryonic development

When nerve cells form in an embryo they do not start off in the right place but have to be guided to their final position by navigating a kind of molecular and cellular "map" in order to function properly. In a recent research study published in Nature Communications neurobiologist Sara Wilson, Umeå University, found that during embryonic development different parts of the nerve cell are important for guiding other nerve cells into their physical positions.

20 May 2015

Gadusol compound can provide a systemic sunscreen to humans

Researchers have discovered why many animal species can spend their whole lives outdoors with no apparent concern about high levels of solar exposure: they make their own sunscreen.

14 May 2015

Growth of neuronal and vascular networks is controlled by same signaling molecules

Neurons and blood vessels often traverse the body side by side, a fact observed as early as the 16th century by the Flemish anatomist Andreas Vesalius. Only over the last ten years, however, researchers have discovered that the growth of neuronal and vascular networks is controlled by the same molecules.

14 May 2015

Study opens door for new therapeutic approaches to treating patients with melanoma

Weill Cornell Medical College researchers have shown for the first time that a gene previously implicated in blood vessel formation during embryonic development and tumor growth also induces immune suppression during tumor development.

30 Apr 2015

Physical forces can affect development of limbs in embryos

University of Toronto engineers and a pediatric surgeon have joined forces to discover that physical forces like pressure and tension affect the development of limbs in embryos--research that could someday be used to help prevent birth defects.

23 Apr 2015

WPI researchers receive NIH grant to develop new class of tissue-engineered heart valves

With a $450,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health, researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute will analyze how mechanical forces and cellular growth factors affect the growth and development of human heart valves to advance the long-term goal of using tissue engineering to develop replacement valves that are more natural and longer-lasting than current replacement valves.

23 Apr 2015

DFG selects 10 researchers to receive 2015 Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize

This year's recipients of the most important prize for early career researchers in Germany have been announced. The selection committee, appointed by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), has chosen ten researchers, five women and five men, to receive the 2015 Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prizes.

10 Apr 2015

Study: 'Open' stem cell chromosomes hold great promise for treating liver, pancreas diseases

Stem cells hold great promise for treating a number of diseases, in part because they have the unique ability to differentiate, specializing into any one of the hundreds of cell types that comprise the human body.

2 Apr 2015

UAB scientist explores the bone development function of runx2 gene

Amjad Javed, Ph.D., of the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has taken a major step forward in understanding the bone development function of a gene called runx2, which could lead to future ways to speed bone healing, aid bone bioengineering, stem osteoporosis and reduce arthritis.

30 Mar 2015