Once removed from the blastocyst they lack the outer trophoblast ... be "nudged" into becoming any cell type found in the human body. These are the cells that Thomson used in his research.

Researchers have also been exploring the possibility of growing human organs in other species, such as pigs, using blastocyst complementation. In a notable development last year, scientists ...

Early zygote and blastocyst donations from patients of IVF clinics have helped shed light on this black box period of development, but human embryos are a limited resource and ethical concerns ...

The fusion of sperm and egg gametes during human fertilization establishes a diploid zygote and initiates a series of cell divisions that result in a multicellular embryo. The blastocyst stage is ...

Furthermore, if cells are recovered from a human donor who will also later receive ... test for pluripotency is known as the tetraploid blastocyst complementation assay. The method involves ...