Development study looks for causes of birth defects

A £10-million research project has been launched by the Wellcome Trust to improve understanding of human embryo development and identify causes of defects.

The five-year Human Developmental Biology Initiative will examine how human cells divide and adopt specialised roles in the first 20 weeks following fertilisation. Research in this field has so far relied on animal and simple cellular models, which has limited the ability of researchers to truly understand early development.

Andrew Chisholm, Wellcome’s head of cellular and developmental sciences, said the results would be openly available to researchers. “This is the first building block of international efforts looking directly at human development,” he said.