For the first time ever, scientists have recorded real-time video of an early stage embryo forming the 'neural tube' that will grow to become its brain and spinal cord (above).

"If this process goes awry or is disrupted and the tube doesn't close properly during the fourth week of human development, the embryo will have brain and spinal cord defects.

Bioengineers at SEAS have developed a soft, thin, stretchable bioelectronic device that can be implanted into a tadpole embryo’s neural plate, the early-stage, flat structure that folds to become the ...

Called the neural plate, this layer of cells lines the embryo’s surface before eventually folding into a tube-like shape. As brain cells expand and migrate, they generate tissues that eventually fold ...

They found that most neural stem cells are produced when the mouse embryo is between 13 and 15 days old, "quite early in embryonic brain development," said Alvarez-Buylla, and then remain ...