Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

One stem cell morphs into a mouse embryo’s forerunner

A sphere of cells that blossoms from only one stem cell can implant in a mouse uterus and form multiple tissues.
A blastoid generated from a single extended pluripotent stem (EPS) cell.

A laboratory-grown structure that mimics the precursor to a mammalian embryo has cells (green) for forming the placenta and cells (red) for forming the embryo itself. Credit: Ronghui Li, Cuiqing Zhong, Yang Yu/Salk Institute

A single stem cell has been coaxed into forming a ball of cells that can implant in a mouse’s uterus, where it then generates all three founding tissues needed to build a foetus.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 574, 456 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03140-z

References

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links