Editorial: Developmental model 2.0

Abstract

Human pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), including embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), have enabled the modeling of human development and helped to illuminate mechanisms of monogenic disease, complex disease, and cancer. Lately, the striking ability of PSCs to self-organize has engendered three-dimension (3D) models of human development. The 3D embryonic cell models partially reconstruct the complex architecture of mammalian early embryonic structures and therefore hold great potential for stem cell and developmental studies. In this Research Topic, Gordeeva et al. described a 3D embryoid body differentiation model and compared the spatiotemporal growth and patterning dynamics of embryoid bodies formed from different stem cell origins and culture conditions. Min et al. profiled the proteome and the protein phosphorylation of blastoids-blastocyst-like 3D structures derived from extended pluripotent stem cells (EPSC).