In the earliest hours after fertilization, an embryo takes its first steps toward becoming a living organism by shedding maternal control and activating its own genetic program. This critical process, ...

Implantation, one of the most poorly understood phases of early human development, occurs in the depths of the womb, at a time when embryos are microscopic, fragile, and well out of reach. Until ...

LONDON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - British scientists have used a genome editing tool known as CRISPR/Cas9 to knock out a gene in embryos just a few days old, testing the technique's ability to decipher key ...

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 ...

Biologists have provided new insights on a longstanding puzzle in biology: How complex organisms arise from a single fertilized cell. Producing a new 'gene atlas' with 4-D imaging, the researchers ...

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 new King's-led study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has found that a single factor (a protein coding gene known as Sox8) can make non-ear cells adopt ear ...