First stage of human embryo development created with lab-grown stem cells
Human blastocysts have been created in a simple, efficient way from stem cells grown in a lab.
Scientists at the University of Exeter s Living Systems Institute, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Cambridge, have developed a method to organise lab-grown stem cells into a model of a blastocyst to recreate the first stage of human embryo development.
Professor Austin Smith, director of the Living Systems Institute, said: Finding that stem cells can create all the elements of an early embryo is a revelation. This is quite remarkable and unlocks exciting possibilities for learning about the human embryo.
Dr Stefano Pagliara, Professor Krasi Tsaneva-Atanasova and Dr Ula Łapińska
Three academics from the University of Exeter’s Living Systems Institute have received half a million pounds funding to tackle antimicrobial resistance.
Dr Stefano Pagliara, Professor Krasi Tsaneva-Atanasova and Dr Ula Łapińska will use the funding to determine how two genetically identical cells can accumulate substantially different amount of drugs.
The funding of just over £500,000 was awarded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) under its 2020 Responsive Mode scheme.
The team’s project, called HETEROTRANSPORT, will use cutting-edge technologies including microfluidics, microscopy and omics to determine the mechanisms that permit drugs to enter and kill bacteria.
They say the new approach unlocks news ways of studying human fertility and reproduction.
Stem cells have the ability to turn into different types of cell and researchers have developed a method to organise lab-grown stem cells into an accurate model of the first stage of human embryo development.
This could benefit research into infertility by furthering understanding of how embryos develop, and the conditions needed to avoid miscarriage and other complications.
The embryo models can also be used to test conditions that may improve the development of embryos in assisted conception procedures such as IVF, the experts say.
The discovery comes after the researchers found that a human stem cell was able to generate the founding elements of a blastocyst, the very early formation of an embryo after a fertilised egg divides.
Credit: University of Exeter
Exeter scientists have discovered a simple, efficient way to recreate the early structure of the human embryo from stem cells in the laboratory. The new approach unlocks news ways of studying human fertility and reproduction.
Stem cells have the ability to turn into different types of cell. Now, in research published in
Cell Stem Cell and funded by the Medical Research Council, scientists at the University of Exeter s Living Systems Institute, working with colleagues from the University of Cambridge, have developed a method to organise lab-grown stem cells into an accurate model of the first stage of human embryo development.
Multi-million funding boost for research into the origin and evolution of vision
A Neuroscience expert from the University of Exeter has been awarded multi-million pound funding to investigate the origin and evolution of vision across the animal kingdom.
Professor Gaspar Jekely, from the University of Exeter’s Living Systems Institute, has received a grant of more than €3 million to conduct pioneering new research into how nervous systems interpret light cues.
The substantial funding was awarded by the European Research Council (ERC) under its 2020 Advanced Grants scheme. Professor Jekely’s research is one of 209 grants awarded to across Europe, worth a total of €507 million in the most recent announcement made today (April 22).