Episode Details

 If you're on the internet even a little bit, you likely saw the viral video first released last August That showed for the first time what a human embryo implanting into a 3D matrix looked like. 

The video comes from work trying to explore what the embryo is actually doing during implantation. Despite how critical this process is, implantation, required for any and every pregnancy, is one of those black box topics. 

Both the details of exactly how the blastocyst attaches to the uterine lining and how it embeds itself into the lining have been virtual mysteries. We do have animal models. We've seen parts of this process in a Petri dish. We've never seen it in 3D before, until now. 

Today, I'll talk to the first author of the paper from which the viral video sprung. The group of scientists that studied this question examine The many things an embryo can do unprompted by an effective uterine lining, and it is mind-blowing.

Traction force and mechanosensitivity mediate
species-specific implantation patterns in human and
mouse embryos: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adr5199