Biocomplexity researchers announce multi-scale model of early embryonic development in vertebrates
Friday, October 21, 2011 - 09:00
in Biology & Nature
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at Indiana University's Biocomplexity Institute have developed a computational model for the intricate cellular dance that occurs during the earliest stages of animal development when embryonic segments called somites form. Somites eventually give rise to the internal scaffolding of life: For common earthworms that scaffolding is 100 or so body segments; in humans it's a segmented mass of cell layers in the early embryo that leads to the formation of muscles, vertebrae, limbs, ribs and the tailbone.