Human Embryo Research: Opening the “Black Box”

source: Cambridge University    2016年12月22日
Cambridge research that will enable scientists to grow and study embryos in the lab for almost two weeks has been named as the People’s Choice for Science magazine’s ‘Breakthrough of the Year 2016’. Professor Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz at the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience has developed a new technique that allows embryos to develop in vitro, in the absence of maternal tissue, beyond the implantation stage (when the embryo would normally implant into the womb). This will allow researchers to analyse for the first time key stages of human embryo development up to 13 days after fertilisation.