Human Embryos News and Research

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Study identifies a gene that plays an important role in embryo development

A new study co-led by a Cedars-Sinai investigator identified a gene that plays an important role in a biological pathway involved in embryo development.

24 May 2022

Regulation of alternative splicing goes haywire in cells of a newly formed embryo

Alternative splicing is a fundamental biological process that allows cells to make many different types of mRNAs and proteins from a limited number of genes. For many animals, including humans, it is a feature that is essential for the development of complex cells such as muscles or neurons.

13 Apr 2022

Predicting the risk of some common diseases in preimplantation fertilized embryos

A new study uses a novel strategy for whole-genome reconstruction by using parental genome sequencing and sibling embryo genotyping.

23 Mar 2022

Experts highlight understated ethics, unclear utility of polygenic embryo testing

New technologies are expanding the reach and accessibility of preimplantation genetic testing of human embryos. But what these advances can deliver is still unclear, and a frank assessment of their profound ethical implications is urgently needed, concludes a commentary in Nature Medicine.

22 Mar 2022

New stem cell model could help map out the key genomic changes during early development

Researchers from the Babraham Institute have today published their latest work in the journal Cell Stem Cell describing a new subset of human embryonic stem cells that closely resemble the cells present at the genomic 'wake up call' of the 8-cell embryo stage in humans.

24 Feb 2022

Researchers develop 3D human spinal cord implants for treating paralyzed patients

For the first time in the world, researchers from Sagol Center for Regenerative Biotechnology at Tel Aviv University have engineered 3D human spinal cord tissues and implanted them in lab model with long-term chronic paralysis.

7 Feb 2022

‘Lefty’ protein pumps the brakes during initial stages of embryo differentiation

A protein known as Lefty pumps the brakes as human embryos begin to differentiate into the bones, soft tissues and organs that make us.

25 Jan 2022

Research offers a phylogenetic and ontogenetic overview of the primitive streak

In their publication in Science, Professor Guojun Sheng (Kumamoto University, Japan), Professor Alfonso Martinez Arias (Universidad Pompeu Fabra, Spain) and Professor Ann Sutherland (University of Virginia Health System, USA) offer a phylogenetic and ontogenetic overview of the primitive streak and its role in mediating amniote (vertebrate animals that develop on land) gastrulation, and discuss the implications of embryonic stem cell-based models of early mammalian embryogenesis on the function of this structure.

4 Dec 2021

Researchers shed light on an important stage of early human embryogenesis for the first time

Scientists have shed light on an important stage of early embryonic development that has never been fully mapped out in humans before.

29 Nov 2021

Using genetic screening for selecting the 'best' embryo in IVF

Each year, tens of thousands of babies are born in the United States as the result of IVF (in vitro fertilization) – where several eggs are fertilized outside the mother's body and then an embryo is selected for transfer into her womb.

12 Oct 2021

Scientists create a novel cell model for understanding human development

The earliest moments of human development—between the time of fertilization and when the embryo implants in the womb—have remained opaque to scientists.

9 Sep 2021

Optimized strategy for generating male germ-cells from mouse pluripotent stem cells

For species that rely on sexual reproduction, including mice and men, offspring can only happen if sperm from the male fertilize eggs from the female.

7 Sep 2021

Three-dimensional analyses of ultrasound images can accurately predict fetal weight during pregnancy

A potential predictor of complications during pregnancy and birth is fetal birth weight. For example, macrosomia (which is defined as a birth weight greater than 4,000 grams) makes it more difficult for the baby's shoulders to pass through the mother's vagina, and this effect can increase the mother's risk of experiencing vaginal tearing and postpartum bleeding and her likelihood of needing to undergo a caesarian section.

3 Aug 2021

New human organoid mimics the earliest developmental steps of the nervous system in embryos

The progression from a round ball of cells to an embryo with a head and a tail is one of the most critical steps in an organism's development. But just how cells first start organizing themselves with directionality along this head-to-tail axis is hard to study because it happens in the earliest days of embryonic development, in the confines of a mammal's uterus.

22 Jun 2021

Rice University neurobiologist wins NIH grant to study enteric nervous system development

Rice University neurobiologist Rosa Uribe will be hitting the books for her latest study of the digestive system, but some of the pages in her books are a billion years old.

10 May 2021

Recreating early embryos using stem cells

In their effort to understand the very earliest stages of life and how they can go wrong, scientists are confronted with ethical issues surrounding the use of human embryos.

23 Apr 2021

AI-based system may help choose viable and healthy early-stage embryo for IVF

The team of researchers at Kaunas University of Technology (KTU), Lithuania applied artificial intelligence (AI) methods to evaluate data of human embryo development.

26 Mar 2021

First model of early human embryo generated from skin cells

In a discovery that will revolutionise research into the causes of early miscarriage, infertility and the study of early human development - an international team of scientists led by Monash University in Melbourne, Australia has generated a model of a human embryo from skin cells.

22 Mar 2021

Study suggests revisiting 14-day limit on human embryo in a dish

An international team of bioethicists and scientists, led by a researcher at Case Western Reserve University, contends it may be justified to go beyond the standing 14-day limit that restricts how long researchers can study human embryos in a dish.

5 Mar 2021

Congress should clarify limits of gene-editing technologies, says law professor

Genome editing of human embryos represents one of the most contentious potential scientific applications today. But what if geneticists could sidestep the controversy by editing sperm and eggs instead?

22 Oct 2020