NewsFeed
December, 2025
December 2025
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  
Christine Allen: Real-Time Insights on Early Embryo Development
Dec 1, 2025, 01:47

Christine Allen: Real-Time Insights on Early Embryo Development

Christine Allen, Scientific Board Advisor at Alife, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“Impressively well designed article.

What the study did:

  • The authors used live-imaging and computational analysis to observe early human embryos (pre-implantation) in real time — something that historically was mostly studied on fixed (stained) embryos.
  • They focused on how and when morphological defects (those associated with poor development or failed implantation) arise at the level of individual cells.

— What this means for embryo development and IVF

  • The study provides direct, real-time evidence that many morphological “defects” seen in early human embryos (and associated with poor development or failed implantation) arise from concrete, identifiable errors in mitosis and cytokinesis — not random noise or artefacts alone.
  • These mitotic and cytokinetic abnormalities are likely a major root cause of developmental failure in human embryos used in IVF or research.
  • Therefore, observing and understanding cell-level division behaviors — rather than just final embryo morphology — may be critical to assess embryo viability more accurately. This could have important implications for embryo selection in IVF, research on embryo development, and understanding early human developmental failure.
  • Lastly, the findings argue for the value of live-imaging and dynamic monitoring (instead of only static snapshots) to reveal hidden cell-division errors that predispose embryos to fail, which could improve both scientific understanding and clinical practice.”

Title: Capturing aberrant cell behaviors producing defects in human embryos via live imaging

Authors: Hiroki Akizawa, Ana Domingo-Muelas, Maria Pardo-Figuerez, Blake Hernandez, Goli Ardestani, Robin M. Skory, Marta Venturas, Piotr Tetlak, Stephanie Bissiere, Denny Sakkas, Carlos Simon, Nicolas Plachta

Christine Allen: Real-Time Insights on Early Embryo Development

Stay updated on all scientific advances in the field of fertility with Fertility News.