Conditional genetics and single-embryo RNA-seq show that SETDB1 extinguishes the transient, retroelement-driven transcriptional programs of the totipotent two-cell state to facilitate the exit from ...

Image of mouse embryos at the 2-cell stage visualised by light microscopy. Two blastomeres (cells) can be seen inside the zona pellucida (a “shell-like” protective outer layer) of each embryo. Credit: ...

There is variability in when and how cells divide during the development of embryos. While researchers traditionally believed this variability was an obstacle that needed to be regulated, the Hiiragi ...

Researchers at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS) and Imperial College London have shown for the first time that, before they can start developing into egg and sperm cells, the embryonic ...

Scientists are exploring ways to mimic the origins of human life without two fundamental components: sperm and egg. They are coaxing clusters of stem cells – programmable cells that can transform into ...

Magdalena (Magda) Zernicka-Goetz, today a developmental and stem cell biologist at the University of Cambridge and California Institute of Technology, recalled being an artistic child who enjoyed ...