The development of humans and other animals unfolds gradually over time, with cells taking on specific roles and functions via a process called cell fate determination. The fate of individual cells, ...

The earliest days after fertilization, once a sperm cell meets an egg, are shrouded in scientific mystery. The process of how a humble single cell becomes an organism fascinates scientists across ...

Recent studies integrating multi-omics data with cell atlases across development for brains of humans and model organisms are revealing conserved and divergent patterns of brain development at the ...

Labs around the world are trying to turn cells into autobiographers, tracking their own development from embryos to adults. By Carl Zimmer Shortly after conception, a fertilized egg divides, becoming ...

Researchers have mapped variation in human stem cells that explains how cells of an individual may shape a unique 'developmental dance' at the molecular level, thereby controlling how the brain and ...

What are the first steps that chart the path for a cell to become a blood cell, neuron cell, or pigment cell? Scientists have developed increasingly powerful tools to track those changes, but one ...

Blood stem cells develop through different stages to become fully mature red blood cells. This fundamental biologic process is defined by a series of complex metabolic processes, which are often ...

A growing body of work suggests that cell metabolism — the chemical reactions that provide energy and building materials — plays a vital, overlooked role in the first steps of life. Each of us starts ...