Birth Defects News and Research

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Organ Development Shaped Equally by Mechanics and Biochemistry

A new study looks at the physical forces that help shape developing organs. Scientists in the past believed that the fast-acting biochemistry of genes and proteins is responsible for directing this choreography.

22 Aug 2025

New Study Identifies Five Core Principles Preserving Tissue Structure

The human body undergoes a daily replacement of billions of cells, but the tissues remain flawlessly organized. How can that be?

16 Jul 2025

Regulators of Cancer Cell Communication During Invasion

This study identifies key genes regulating neural crest functions in melanoma, revealing insights into collective migration and potential therapeutic targets.

16 Jul 2025

Gene Editing Halts Symptoms of Rare Smooth Muscle Disease in Preclinical Study

Using gene editing in a preclinical model, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center blocked the symptoms of a rare smooth muscle disease before they developed.

25 Jun 2025

Anthrobots Reveal How Cells Can Build New Shapes Without Genetic Edits

Modern humans have existed for over 200,000 years, and each new generation has begun with a single cell-dividing, changing shape and function, organizing into tissues, organs, and limbs.

23 Jun 2025

New Software Reveals Unprecedented Insights into Embryonic Heart Development

Researchers have created a new software program that offers previously unheard-of capabilities for viewing inside 3D pictures.

13 Jan 2025

Unveiling Human Stem Cell Model with Functional Notochord

For the first time, the notochord a tissue in the developing embryo that serves as a navigation system, telling cells where to build the spine and nervous system (the trunk) has been included in human stem cell models created by researchers at the Francis Crick Institute.

19 Dec 2024

Study Finds How Plants Limit Viral Spread to Progeny with RNA Interference

Scientists have learned how plants keep viruses from being passed to their offspring, a finding that could ensure healthier crops.

20 Sep 2024

Supercomputer Simulations Unveil Mechanisms of Fruit Fly Wing Development

If fruit fly wings do not develop into the right shape, the flies will die. UC Riverside researchers have learned how fly embryo cells develop as they need to, opening a window into human development and possible treatments for birth defects.

20 May 2024

Fruit Fly Model Unveils Hidden Mechanisms of Organ Development

A new computational model simulating fruit fly wing development has enabled researchers to identify previously hidden mechanisms behind organ generation.

8 May 2024

Embryonic Cells Pressed into Organizers: Mechanism Unveiled

A collaboration between research groups at the University of California, TU Dresden in Germany and Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children's in Los Angeles has identified a mechanism by which embryonic cells organize themselves to send signals to surrounding cells, telling them where to go and what to do.

4 Apr 2024

Genetic Origins of Birth Defects Discovered

A new study led by the University of California, Irvine has revealed a potential shift in our basic knowledge of the origins of birth defects, which affect about 3 percent of babies born in the United States each year.

29 Mar 2024

Researchers Identify Proteins to Reprogram Fibroblasts into Limb Progenitor Cells

In a collaborative study, researchers from Kyushu University and Harvard Medical School have identified proteins that can turn or "reprogram" fibroblasts -; the most commonly found cells in skin and connective tissue -; into cells with similar properties to limb progenitor cells.

5 Mar 2024

Study Reveals Genetic Mechanism Behind Human Tail Loss

A genetic change in our ancient ancestors may partly explain why humans don't have tails like monkeys, finds a new study led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

29 Feb 2024

LJI Researchers Identify Late-Rising T Cells Crucial for CMV Control

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a pathogen that likes to lurk. Most adults already carry CMV, and they show no symptoms at all.

22 Jan 2024

Scientists Discover New Class of Molecular Glue Degraders for Cancer Therapy

Cells contain molecular machinery that targets and disposes of unwanted proteins to maintain homeostasis.

17 Nov 2023

Experimental Model Sheds Light on Key Cellular Processes Involved in Embryogenesis

Many birth defects and spontaneous abortions occur during the embryonic development stage known as neurulation, yet we have very little insight into how this critical developmental process unfolds in humans.

9 May 2023

New software helps identify genes that play vital roles in the development

Computer software developed at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis can predict what happens to complex gene networks when individual genes are missing or dialed up more than usual.

14 Feb 2023

The detrimental effects of alcohol consumption during pregnancy

For the first time, researchers at the University of Helsinki in Finland examined the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on the epigenome and gene function of the placenta. The epigenome is a molecular coating on a DNA strand that controls how genes are expressed.

4 Jan 2023

Atypical antibody shows extremely potent zika-resistant activity

A group of researchers led by Weill Cornell Medicine, New York-Presbyterian, and National Institutes of Health (NIH) investigators has discovered an unusual type of antibody that, even at extremely low concentrations, neutralizes the Zika virus and renders the virus infection undetectable in preclinical models.

22 Nov 2022