Much of what we know about the early stages of human development is based on descriptions of a few embryos that have only appeared in original articles and textbooks that, in many cases, are over a hundred years old. This is indicated by a team of researchers from the Department of Anatomy, Embryology and Physiology of the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam in a recent article published in the journal Science .
These experts, coordinated by Dr. Bernadette S. de Bakker, from the same institution, have presented a detailed digital atlas that allows us to observe, for example, how the different organs arise and the complex interactions they have with each other .
The project, called 3D Atlas of Human Embryology, began in 2009 at the aforementioned medical center in the Netherlands. After 45,000 hours of work, the scientists have managed to build 14 interactive three-dimensional models and a database with 34 embryos that shows their evolution throughout the first two months of development. To do this, they have analyzed more than 15,000 sections of biological tissues that have been preserved since 1914 by the Carnegie Institution of Washington. From this information, they have built the 3D models that, among many other things, will facilitate the study of the growth of the organs as well as the changes in position they experience in their initial phases.
Bernadette S. de Bakker and her collaborators hope that this initiative will help to clarify how morphogenesis takes place, that is, the process that gives an organism just the shape it has, and how some congenital malformations manifest.
