October 4, 2018
Cosmos Editorial
Researchers from Switzerland’s University of Geneva, the University of Cambridge, UK, and the French Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne have induced a glob comprising just 300 mouse-derived embryos to self-organise into a pseudo embryo.
Writing in the journal Nature, scientists led by Cambridge’s Alfonso Martinez Arias reveal that in the right conditions the group of stem cells – known as a gastroloid – will spontaneously form into a three-dimensional structure, and then start to differentiate along the ventral, dorsal and lateral planes.
The results, the researchers say, looks very similar to the rear half of a mouse embryo between six to 10 days after development begins.
