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 ...

Ancient viruses are embedded everywhere in the human genome. Estimates range, but it's thought that about eight percent of the human genome could be made up of these ancient retroviruses, which are ...

A research team showed that, contrary to current models, one early embryonic cell dominates lineages that will become the fetus. “They are not identical,” said Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, a ...

A new study using stem cell-based models has shed new light on how the human embryo begins to develop, which could one day benefit the development of fertility treatment. The study led by at the ...

The majority of fertilized eggs die and are resorbed into the body. ZEISS Microscopy/Flickr, CC BY-SA As an evolutionary biologist whose career has focused on how embryos develop in a wide variety of ...

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 ...

Researchers have developed a new stem cell model of the mature human amniotic sac, which replicates development of the tissues supporting the embryo from two to four weeks after fertilization. This is ...

A team of scientists has just gotten a closer peek into one of the earliest and most fundamental steps of creating a human life. Research out today highlights how they captured—for the first ...

Researchers have discovered a potential 'pause button' in the earliest stages of human development. Whether humans can control the timing of their development has long been debated. The new study ...