During the fetal stage, a number of so-called cell programs run that are vital to the development of the fetus. In a study published in Cell Reports, researchers from Lund University demonstrate that ...

As a fetus develops, its body is bathed in amniotic fluid: a warm, salty soup of nutrients, hormones, and antibodies produced by its mother. And into that fluid, a fetus is constantly sloughing off or ...

Long before birth, the prenatal liver fosters the stem cells that will power our blood and immune systems for a lifetime. The fetal liver functions like a finely tuned incubator, providing the perfect ...

During the fetal stage, a number of so-called cell programs run that are vital to the development of the fetus. Researchers demonstrate that one of these fetal programs appears to protect against ...

A chronological map of the fetal brain reveals when key cells emerge and provides clues about autism and cancer.

Diagnostic imaging and genetic screens help clinicians catch congenital fetal diseases in utero, but models for studying organ development and disease progression are limited. Over the last decade, ...

The maternal-fetal interface is the meeting point for maternal and fetal cells during pregnancy. It’s been long understood as an area of conflict, where the placenta–a fetal organ– invades the mother ...

The evolution of biomedical science can be appreciated through studies of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein in red cells. Before molecular cloning, the geneticist Arno Motulsky noted, “Many ...

Editor's Note: Scientific literature generally uses the words "mother" and "maternal" in reference to a person with a uterus who has carried a child. To avoid inconsistencies, this article also uses ...

Genetic disorders with onset before birth are a leading cause of death in infants and children. Thanks to advances in imaging and genetic diagnostic technologies, clinicians can now detect many of ...