Jianping Fu is in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA, and in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and of Cell and Developmental ...

In mammals, including humans, a fertilized egg undergoes a series of cell divisions over the first days of development, leading to the formation of a structure called the blastocyst (Fig. 1). The ...

The mechanisms that underlie early embryonic development in humans and cattle are very similar. Therefore, researchers argue that bovine embryos might well be a better model for early human ...

A faithful model of the human blastocyst has been developed which replicates key phases of very early development from 4 to 13 days post fertilization, including attaching to layers of ...

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 ...

Stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types. Now, using mouse stem cells instead of the usual sperm and egg, scientists have created a structure like a ...

Very few specimens exist that document the first weeks of embryonic development in humans. In some cases, information about a particular stage of development comes from a single specimen. Other ...

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) and their cargo microRNAs (miRNAs) are important regulators of embryo development to the blastocyst stage and beyond. Before implantation can take place, hatching of ...

We know much about how embryos develop, but one key stage -- implantation -- has remained a mystery. Now, scientists have discovered a way to study and film this 'black box' of development. This new ...

The mechanisms that underlie early embryonic development in humans and cattle are very similar. Therefore, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich researchers argue that bovine embryos might ...