Scientists brave enough to grow a spine
Stem cells self-organise into trunk-like structures.
Comparison of nine-day-old mouse embryo grown in the womb (left) and a trunk-like-structure (right). The neural tube, which eventually makes the spinal cord, is in pink. All other tissues are blue. Credit: J Veenvliet, A Bolondi, MPI f. Mol. Genet
Growing an embryo outside the body may not be that far away.
German scientists report that they have successfully simulated an important phase of the process by growing mouse embryonic cells in a petri dish. The structure was the central trunk, which holds the developing neural tubes that will become the spinal cord.