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.

Scientists find a way to rapidly produce pure populations of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells

Scientists at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine found a way to rapidly produce pure populations of cells that grow into the protective myelin coating on nerves in mice. Their process opens a door to research and potential treatments for multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy and other demyelinating diseases afflicting millions of people worldwide.

26 Sep 2011

NIH-funded project to develop new class of tissue regeneration therapeutics

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded nearly $2 million to researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University to develop a new class of therapeutics for treating traumatic injuries and degenerative diseases.

22 Sep 2011

Researcher identifies genetic mutation responsible for adermatoglyphia

Like DNA, fingerprints are unique to each person or set of identical twins. That makes them a valuable identification tool for everything from crime detection to international travel. But what happens when the tips of our fingers are missing those distinctive patterns of ridges?

19 Sep 2011

Biologists reveal why men's ring fingers are longer than their index fingers

Biologists at the University of Florida have found a reason why men's ring fingers are generally longer than their index fingers - and why the reverse usually holds true for women.

6 Sep 2011

Scientists show how scaling works in developing fruit fly wings

Weizmann Institute scientists have added a significant piece to the puzzle of scaling - how patterns stay in sync with size as an embryo or organism grows and develops. In a new study appearing in Current Biology, Institute scientists Profs.

24 Aug 2011

Scientists gain new insight on role of stem cells in embryonic heart development

Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have gained new insight into the delicate relationship between two proteins that, when out of balance, can prevent the normal development of stem cells in the heart and may also be important in some types of cancer.

16 Aug 2011

Study suggests link between gene variant and Proteus syndrome

Orthopaedic surgeons from Children's National Medical Center are part of a team of researchers that has identified the genetic mutation causing Proteus syndrome, a rare disorder in which tissue and bone grow massively out of proportion.

11 Aug 2011

Study: miR-200s play a paradoxical role in metastatic cancer development

While they may be small in size, a family of tiny molecules called microRNAs could potentially play a large role in the process of cancer metastasis, or the spread of cancer from one area of the body to another.

8 Aug 2011

Roadmap to overcome obstacles for using induced pluripotent stem cells

The possibility of developing stem cells from a patient's own skin and using them to treat conditions as diverse as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and cancer has generated tremendous excitement in the stem cell research community in recent years. Such therapies would avoid the controversial need for using stem cells derived from human embryos, and in theory, also bypass immunological problems inherent in using cells from one person to treat another.

5 Aug 2011

Researchers develop mouse model of rare human birth defect

A team of researchers from the University of Utah and Brigham Young University has developed a mouse model of focal dermal hypoplasia, a rare human birth defect that causes serious skin abnormalities and other medical problems. This animal model not only provides insight into studying the cause of focal dermal hypoplasia (FDH), but also offers a novel way to study a signaling pathway that is crucial for embryonic development.

21 Jul 2011

Loss of critical male development gene causes male cells to become female

University of Minnesota Medical School and College of Biological Sciences researchers have made a key discovery showing that male sex must be maintained throughout life.

21 Jul 2011

USPTO issues patent for Mirna's tumor suppressor microRNAs

Mirna Therapeutics, Inc. announced today that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has allowed multiple patent claims related to the therapeutic application of several tumor suppressor microRNAs.

21 Jul 2011

New technique explores how cells react to rapidly changing patterns of chemoattractants

Many cell types in higher organisms are capable of implementing directed motion in response to the presence of certain chemical attractants in their vicinity. A team led by Dr. Doris Heinrich of the Faculty of Physics and the Center for NanoScience (CeNS) at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit-t (LMU) in Munich has developed a novel technique to expose an ensemble of living cells to rapidly varying concentrations of chemoattractants.

6 Jul 2011

MGH researchers discover new plant compounds that block blood vessel growth

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers have discovered the first of an entirely new class of antiangiogenesis drugs - agents that interfere with the development of blood vessels.

2 Jul 2011

Study: Dyslexia gene controls cilia in brain neurons

Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have discovered that a gene linked to dyslexia has a surprising biological function: it controls cilia, the antenna-like projections that cells use to communicate.

20 Jun 2011

Overactive mTOR can result in serious disruption of kidney filter in diabetes patients

Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common secondary diseases in modern society. And because it is on the rise, it is also one of the greatest challenges facing medicine today. Diabetes patients do not die as a direct result of the increase in blood sugar, but from the long-term complications of their disease, in which the increase in blood sugar causes damage to blood vessels and organs.

15 Jun 2011

Researchers discover genomic control system that regulates gut formation in sea-urchin embryos

For all animals, development begins with the embryo. It is here that uniform cells divide and diversify, and blueprints are laid for future structures, like skeletal and digestive systems. Although biologists have known for some time that signaling processes-messages that tell a cell to express certain genes so as to become certain parts of these structures-exist at this stage, there has not been a clear framework explanation of how it all comes together.

4 Jun 2011

Scientists invent Monolayer Stress Microscopy to measure physical forces during collective cellular migration

The physical forces that guide how cells migrate-how they manage to get from place to place in a coordinated fashion inside the living body- are poorly understood. Scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia have, for the first time, devised a way to measure these forces during collective cellular migration.

23 May 2011

Novel neurotransmitter could fight against neurological diseases

A team of scientists has discovered that D-aspartic acid is a novel neurotransmitter that could potentially be used in the fight against neurological diseases such as Parkinson's and schizophrenia.

6 May 2011

New research provides insight into mechanism behind cardiac development

During embryonic development, cells migrate to their eventual location in the adult body plan and begin to differentiate into specific cell types. Thanks to new research at the University of Pennsylvania, there is new insight into how these processes regulate tissues formation in the heart.

25 Apr 2011