This collection welcomes original research on the molecular basis of embryonic development. Human embryonic development begins with a single fertilized egg and involves complex processes regulated at ...

The discovery of a gene essential to early embryonic development sheds light on the preliminary stages of human placenta formation. A team led by scientists from the University of California San Diego ...

Multicellularity is one of the most profound phenomena in biology, and relies on the ability of a single cell to reorganize itself into a complex organism. It underpins the diversity in the animal ...

Scientists have gotten an unprecedented look at how the human embryo implants in a uterus. They did this by creating very primitive, womb-like environments in the lab. "This is really important work ...

The sperm is not a passive supplier of genetic material to the egg. A study from Linköping University, Sweden, shows that certain molecules that come with the sperm, so-called micro-RNA, contribute to ...

Neural crest cells are a population of stem cells that invade the embryo in early development. They play a big role in what ...

New findings offer insight into why some embryos fail to develop past zygotic genome activation (ZGA), pointing to an unexpected root of human infertility. A critical point in early development is ...