How Cells Coordinate During Embryonic Development
Researchers have offered new insights into how cells divide and move collectively during embryonic development.
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During embryonic development, thousands of cells divide and move collectively, sculpting the main body axes from an initially symmetric ensemble of cells. Understanding the mechanisms that coordinate this collective behavior remains a significant challenge in biology and the physics of living systems, but a better understanding could have implications in health and science, from medicine to biomaterials.
Now researchers have discovered that avian embryos — established models for studying human development — control their size and shape using modular, independent physical mechanisms.
“Physical principles offer remarkable insight into how similar cells self-organize into complex, functional forms.” - Assistant Professor of Physics Mattia Serra
Clarifying the modular mechanisms that regulate the emergent embryo geometry (size and shape) helps further our understanding of the evolutionary plasticity of natural embryos and suggests strategies for engineering synthetic ones.
Reference: Serrano Nájera G, Plum AM, Steventon B, Weijer CJ, Serra M. Control of tissue flows and embryo geometry in avian gastrulation. Nat Commun. 2025;16(1):5174. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-60249-8
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