ABOVE: An embryoid forming two halves (green and yellow)
LABORATORY OF STEM CELL BIOLOGY AND MOLECULAR EMBRYOLOGY AT THE ROCKEFELLER UNIVERSITY
Using human embryonic stem cells (ES cells), researchers have generated models of early human embryos in the lab that are more complex than any previous lab-generated embryo model, NPR reports. They’ve also shown that the application of the protein BMP4 causes these embryo models, called embryoids, to break symmetry, or go from a round ball to a structure with front and back ends.
How the human embryo breaks symmetry is a mystery. That this could happen in the embryoids with BMP4 but without maternal factors or extra-embryonic tissues surprised the researchers, they write in their paper, published July 1 in Nature Cell Biology.
“This process of symmetry breaking is a major holy grail of development biology,” Rockefeller University stem cell researcher Ali Brivanlou, who led the research, tells NPR. “I ...
