Epiblast diversification and blood formation in a human pregastrula. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Epiblast diversification and blood formation in a human pregastrula - Nature

High-resolution spatial transcriptome analysis of a human embryo at Carnegie stage 6 reveals three distinct developmental trajectories from the epiblast towards amnion, primitive streak and axial meso...

nature.com

For the second time this month, a team of researchers has reported harnessing a precise gene-editing technique to alter the DNA of human embryos go.nature.com/4vwIXrO

‘Edited’ human embryos reveal secrets of our development — and fuel ethical debate

Ethical discussions are urgently needed as genome-editing science advances, some researchers say.

go.nature.com

Journal impact factors were released yesterday. In our latest @dev-journal.bsky.social Editorial, @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social and I discuss how we are all architects of impact, highlighting that measuring the influence and support journals provide goes beyond a single number. doi.org/10.1242/dev....

The elephant in the room: impact factor

Summary: This Editorial offers an honest look at impact factor trends in developmental biology, explains how Development serves its community, and makes the case that sustaining developmental biology ...

doi.org

Continuous modeling of primate embryogenesis from totipotency to early organogenesis. Cell. www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

Continuous modeling of primate embryogenesis from totipotency to early organogenesis

A primate embryoid system is established from cynomolgus totipotent blastomere-like cells. This fertilization-independent system recapitulates development from a totipotent-like state through an inter...

cell.com

I am very happy to share that I've started my new position @upcite.bsky.social and opened my lab @institutimagine.bsky.social 🎉 In the lab we will study how differences in X-linked gene dosage between the sexes affect fetal growth and survival and contribute to sex differences later in life 👩‍🔬🧪🧬🧫

Friends Davor Solter and Azim Surani receiving the wonderful Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize for Genomic Imprinting👏 👍 @Frankfurt Germany. With official talks from politicians using words like Education, Knowledge, Democracy 🙏 @maxplanck.de @gurdoninstitute.bsky.social

Two decades of induced pluripotent stem cell research: From discovery to diverse applications

Two decades of induced pluripotent stem cell research: From discovery to diverse applications

Since the discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) 20 years ago, iPSC technology has transformed stem cell research and regenerative medicine. This perspective reviews key advances in reprogramming mechanisms and highlights the growing clinical, translational, and societal applications of iPSCs.

dlvr.it

I look forward to presenting the work of the lab at the 2nd Meeting on Early Embryogenesis and Epigenetics in Berlin next week. My talk will summarise ongoing work on early human development using naive pluripotent stem cells and embryo models. www.molgen.mpg.de/embryo2026

2nd Meeting on Early Embryogenesis and Epigenetics

molgen.mpg.de

We are thrilled to share our new pre-print: “System-wide extraction of cis-regulatory rules from sequence-to-function models in human neural development”. S2F-deeplearning models can accurately encode enhancers, yet decoding these models into human-interpretable rules remains a major challenge.

Amazing and important work from Agenese Loda and colleagues! Happy to see this out. Congratulations to all co-authors.

Agnese Loda@agneseloda.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Very happy to share our paper rdcu.be/eUImj out today in @natcellbio.nature.com 🎉🎉🎉 We uncover an unexpected role for endogenous Xist RNA in regulating X-linked genes that escape X-inactivation.

We have just published a tribute to John Gurdon, reflecting on his scientific legacy and the profound influence he had on generations of developmental biologists. The piece is available open access in Nature Communications: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Reversibility, regulation, and the community of development: the legacy of Sir John B. Gurdon - Nature Communications

Nature Communications - Reversibility, regulation, and the community of development: the legacy of Sir John B. Gurdon

nature.com

A stem-cell-based monkey embryo model that self-organizes into a comprehensive body plan could lead the way to more-sophisticated models of early human development go.nature.com/48yxsG6

Primate embryo model leaps across developmental boundaries

A stem-cell-based monkey embryo model that self-organizes into a comprehensive body plan could lead the way to more-sophisticated models of early human development.

go.nature.com

We are excited to share our new preprint: SMARCA2/4-Dependent Chromatin Remodelling Establishes Gene Regulatory Programs in Early Human Embryos and Blastoids. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.01.691499v1

𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐭! 🎉 “𝐗𝐈𝐒𝐓 𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐗-𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐚𝐟𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬 𝐅𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐄𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜 𝐂𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐇𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐬” 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐢𝐨𝐑𝐱𝐢𝐯! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

XIST Drives X-Chromosome Inactivation and Safeguards Female Extraembryonic Cells in Humans

Dosage compensation of sex chromosomes through X-chromosome inactivation (XCI) is required for mice extra-embryonic tissue growth and embryo development. The species specificity in mechanisms and timi...

biorxiv.org

🚀 Research Showcase 🔬 🧬 New research shows that cells can boost activity from the intact X-chromosome region when the other copy is deleted — ensuring balanced gene expression at RNA and protein levels. Read the study 👉 www.vscentrum.be/post/x-chrom...

📢 Speaker showcase for our 2nd Meeting #Embryo2026 🧬Vincent Pasque @pasquelab.bsky.social from @kuleuvenuniversity.bsky.social will speak about his work on modelling early human embryogenesis with naïve pluripotent stem cells. More information👇 www.molgen.mpg.de/embryo2026

📣 SAVE THE DATE Next X-inactivation meeting in Sapporo, Japan, 19-23 October 2026. Visit x-inactivation-meeting.org to join our mailing list. 🧬 speakers @dandergassen.bsky.social @marnieblewitt.bsky.social @heard65.bsky.social @crougeulle.bsky.social @sexchrlab.bsky.social @zhouqi1982.bsky.social

I am absolutely delighted to share the invited speakers for our upcoming @bsdb.bsky.social "Molecules to Morphogenesis" meeting! Registration and abstract submission is now open - join us! bsdb.org/meetings/ March 23-26, 2026 - UK

“I believe he has ideas about becoming a scientist; on his present showing, this is quite ridiculous.” A privilege to have known John. He always listened to what one had to say with great intent. If you knew him, you know what I mean. 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

John Gurdon obituary: Biologist who made cloning possible

He showed that specialized cells retain the genes to form an organism.

nature.com

Adios and salut to a pioneer! Sir John Gurdon studied the requirements and barriers of #reprogramming. Highly relevant for us, with his PhD student Vincent Pasque he showed that macroH2A is part of the epigenetic barrier inhibiting reprogramming. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.

Manuel Collado@manuel-collado.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Sad to hear about the passing of John Gurdon, a titan and pioneer of developmental biology and much more. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology, shared with Shinya Yamanaka, who actually was inspired by his work www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...

It is with profound sadness that I have learned of the passing of my beloved PhD supervisor, John Gurdon. We have lost a true giant, an incredible mentor, kind and generous, whose contributions to science will inspire generations. He changed my life, and the lives of so many others.

I spoke with Benjamin Thompson on the Nature Podcast about a new study that uses stem cell-based embryo models – blastoids – to uncover how a recently evolved cis-regulatory element became essential for early human embryo gene regulatory programs. Tune in a share your thoughts below.

Nature Podcast@naturepodcast.bsky.social · 10mo ago

This week on the pod: 🦠 How ancient viruses drive modern human development 🧬 How heat can fuel DNA computers go.nature.com/42QSI7W

Today in @nature.com, we present our work leveraging functional genomics and human blastoids to uncover a human-specific mechanism in preimplantation development driven by the endogenous retrovirus HERVK. Special thanks to the reviewers whose comments improved our manuscript a lot! rdcu.be/eI3tD

A human-specific regulatory mechanism revealed in a pre-implantation model

Nature - Genetic manipulation of blastoids reveals the role of recently emerged transposable elements and genes in human development.

rdcu.be

Excited to share our latest News & Views published in Nature! @nature.com rdcu.be/eI2NJ Sherif Khodeer and I discuss how stem cell-based embryo models provide evidence that viral DNA sequences that entered the human genome in the past were repurposed to aid early stages of embryonic development.

Nieuw inzicht in hoe cellen genetisch evenwicht bewaren. nieuws.kuleuven.be/nl/2025/nieu...

Nieuw inzicht in hoe cellen genetisch evenwicht bewaren

Onderzoekers van KU Leuven en Erasmus MC hebben aangetoond dat cellen het verlies van genen op het X-chromosoom kunnen compenseren door de andere kopie van dat gen actiever te maken. Opvallend is dat ...

nieuws.kuleuven.be

How cells maintain genetic balance with remarkable precision. nieuws.kuleuven.be/en/content/2...

How cells maintain genetic balance with remarkable precision

Researchers from KU Leuven and Erasmus MC (the Netherlands) have shown that cells can compensate for the loss of genes on the X chromosome by increasing the expression of the other gene copy. Surprisi...

nieuws.kuleuven.be

Excited to share our new paper in Nature Communications @natcomms.nature.com (www.nature.com/articles/s41...) We show how cells can sense when individual genes are lost and compensate by upregulating the remaining gene copy. With Ryan Allsop, Jeffrey Boeren, Beatrice Tan, Joost Gribnau and others.

📣 It is my pleasure to announce our recent review with Margherita on the current approaches, challenges, and perspectives in studying human maternal-fetal interface using in vitro models www.cell.com/cell-stem-ce... 🚀✨️

Modeling the human maternal-fetal interface

This review explores the advances in stem cell and organoid models of the endometrium, placenta, and embryo, outlining challenges in integrating them to capture spatiotemporal dynamics and functional ...

cell.com

FMI science@fmiscience.bsky.social · 11mo ago

In a Review just published in @cp-cellstemcell.bsky.social, @vladbndk.bsky.social and Margherita Turco explore how stem cell and organoid models can be used and combined to better study the maternal–fetal interface. A 🧵

Exciting postdoc position to study X-chromosome inactivation using stem cell-based embryos models, advanced imaging and single-cell omics at the Pasque lab, University of Leuven – KU Leuven, Belgium. International team, amazing collaborators. Full details: www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jo...

We are hiring a Lab Technician! Join our lab at the University of Leuven - KU Leuven, working on stem cell biology and epigenetics. Perform key molecular/cell biology techniques and manage lab operations. Full/part-time contract. Apply by Sept 30! More info: www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jo...