Neural crest cells are a population of stem cells that invade the embryo in early development. They play a big role in what you look like: the pigments of your eyes, of your skin, and the bone ...

Craniofacial birth defects, including cleft lip and palate, are among the most common human congenital malformations. These craniofacial anomalies occur because of defects in neural crest cells, whose ...

As an embryo grows, there is a continuous stream of communication between cells to form tissues and organs. Cells need to read numerous cues from their environment, and these may be chemical or ...

Craniofacial development is a complex process that involves the specification of diverse and transient cell types. However, our understanding of these processes and the cell-types present during human ...

A crucial new mechanism that helps explain how the heart’s major blood vessels form during early development – and how disruptions to this process can lead to serious congenital heart defects – has ...

A new discovery by researchers challenges our current understanding of gastrulation, the most important stage of early embryonic development. When the zygote, or the fertilised egg, starts to develop, ...

Scientists have shed new light on how certain biological processes determine the development of neural cells. Their findings on a molecular 'bridge' complex demonstrate a new level of detail in the ...

An illustration of zebrafish heart development, showing the migration of cells in the growing embryo after 17 hours, 1 day and 2 days to form the heart. Most heart cells come from the embryonic ...

Bioengineering researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have developed a soft, thin, stretchable bioelectronic device that can be implanted into a ...