STEM CELL-BASED EMBRYO MODELS: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR BASIC AND TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH

Stem cell-based embryo models have emerged as pioneering experimental models to study early mammalian embryogenesis using pluripotent stem cells. These models provide invaluable tools to study fundamental aspects of embryonic development and serve as platforms for disease modeling and drug screening1. Among the stem-cell based embryo models are gastruloids. Gastruloids are aggregates of defined numbers of embryonic stem cells that, under defined culture conditions, undergo symmetry breaking and recapitulate crucial events of gastrulation and axis formation2. I will introduce this topic and present some recent works of our group on the relationship between pluripotency and competence to develop gastruloids3 and how we can manipulate gastruloids to ask questions about how genes and cells interact to build an embryo4,5