Life begins with a single fertilized cell that gradually transforms into a multicellular organism. This process requires ...

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 ...

The majority of fertilized eggs die and are resorbed into the body. ZEISS Microscopy/Flickr, CC BY-SA As an evolutionary biologist whose career has focused on how embryos develop in a wide variety of ...

Transforming human stem cells into embryo-like structures was previously unthinkable. Yet seemingly overnight, multiple teams published initial results that reach towards this goal. Each team has a ...

Over half of our genomes consists of thousands of remnants of ancient viral DNA, known as transposable elements, which are widespread across the tree of life. Once dismissed as the "dark side" of the ...

Researchers have used naïve pluripotent stem cells to create an embryo model that looks and acts like a natural human embryo. They say it’s an ethical way of gaining a better understanding of ...

Lacking bones, brains, and even a complete gut, the body plans of simple animals like sea anemones appear to have little in common with humans and their vertebrate kin. Nevertheless, new research ...

Research shows how the curved shape of a zebrafish egg sets cell division timing, gene activation, and early cell fate ...

Scientists have identified key molecular events in the earliest stages of human embryo development that could help shed light on why many pregnancies fail. These events occur in the second week of ...

As people age, so do all of our cells, which accumulate damage over time. But why our offspring don’t inherit those changes — effectively aging a child even before birth — has been a mystery. “When ...