Lineage specification and commitment are synchronized in the developing trophectoderm lineage of the mouse embryo, but are asynchronous events in the maturing inner cell mass, revealing a window of plasticity in this lineage.

Micropatterned differentiation of human ESCs generates gastrulation cell types – germ layers, extraembryonic, and primordial germ cells with primate characteristics – that show conserved sorting behaviors when dissociated and reseeded as single-cell mixture.

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.

Functional analyses of in vitro fertilized, preimplanation human embryos reveal that the first lineage segregation depends on cell polarization signaling that is regulated by Phospholipase C (PLC) activity.

Identifying the pathways that support human naive-state pluripotent stem cells provides insights into the signalling-based regulation of human pluripotency and enables informed decisions to improve conditions for pluripotent cell culture.

The Notch signaling pathway drives transitions in differentiation capacities during the gradual loss of potency that occurs in the preimplantation mouse embryo before the onset of the first lineage decisions.

HIPPO signaling antagonizes the apical domain of polarized cells, driving cell internalization, regulated gene expression, and cell fate change during formation of pluripotent stem cell progenitors in the mouse embryo.

Time-resolved multiomics analysis during Oct4 depletion and recovery reveals concentration-dependent activities of Oct4 in controlling enhancer transcription and chromatin accessibility in mouse embryonic stem cells.

In vitro analyses reveal how vertical DNA transmission from the mother to the pre-implantation embryo via endometrial extracellular vesicles can impact embryo bioenergetics.