Approximately 80% of miscarriages occur during the first trimester. Improving our understanding of the first weeks of embryonic development, especially the point at which the embryo implants in the womb, is crucial to understand why some pregnancies fail. Studying these stages has proven to be difficult due to the scarcity of samples for ethical reasons. Stem cell models of these early stages are emerging as an alternative to study how the embryo self-organizes during these critical weeks and why this process can fail.
reNEW research
In the Brickman Lab in reNEW, we focus on improving current stem-cell derived embryo models. Over the years, our lab has developed a protocol to produce blastoids, a pre-implantation model that better recapitulates critical features of the pre-implantation embryo, which were missing from previous models. Starting from these blastoids, we are exploring how they develop during post-implantation stages and investigating how the presence of these previously missing features influences their ability to self-organize.
Image description
Two blastoids, a stem cell model of early embryonic development, have fused to each other instead of settling down.
Credits
Cecilia Reyes, PhD student, Brickman lab, reNEW Copenhagen.
Nazmus Salehin, Postdoc, Brickman lab, reNEW Copenhagen.
