Guidelines governing research into embryos need to be updated in a way that reflects the moral status of synthetic human entities generated using the methods of synthetic biology.

A mathematical model predicts that cell cycle duration acts as a transcriptional filter and directly affects cell diversity in early eukaryotic development.

Human yolk sac-like cells, which share characteristics with the post-implantation human hypoblast, can model the interaction between the epiblast and hypoblast that occurs during early human development.

Naive hPSCs can readily give rise to human trophoblast stem cells, thus demonstrating their extraembryonic lineage potential and providing a new model system to study human trophectoderm specification.

Finch embryos are laid at an earlier stage than other avian embryos and contain cells with similar properties to pluripotent embryonic stem cells from mice.

Mapping single-cell atlases throughout Metazoa systematically characterizes cell type diversity and the evolution of their associated gene expression programs.

AIRE played novel roles in the mitosis process in embryonic stem cells and early embryo cells.

Cells from vertebrate and invertebrate model systems can be reprogrammed into stem-like cells using mouse genes.

Highly reproducible and efficient human primordial germ cell differentiation was achieved through geometric confinement, which enabled quantitative dissection of the cell signaling driving this differentiation, revealing a major role of Wnt signaling is indirect by inducing Nodal signaling.

Post-implantation epiblast maturation and patterning of anterior-posterior axis in mouse embryonic development are mediated by pluripotency transcription factor Zfp281 through transcriptional and epigenetic control of Nodal signaling.