We must do a pregnancy test on them, Moffett said. If Turco was correct, the miniature ball of cells she had created would secrete HCG, the hormone that triggers a positive pregnancy test. I took the stick, put it in, and it was positive, says Turco, now a reproductive biologist at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Basel, Switzerland. It was the best celebration.
In 2017, Ashley Moffett, a reproductive immunologist, walked to the pharmacy near her laboratory at the University of Cambridge, UK, to buy a pregnancy test. But it wasn't for Moffett. Her postdoc, Margherita Turco, had created what she thought might be the first cluster of cells capable of mimicking the tissue of the placenta - a placental organoid. But she needed a way to be sure.
Imaging revealed a distinct space between the implant and the bone, suggesting that the implant had been integrated through soft tissue rather than the traditional fusion with the bone.
After more than two decades of work, researchers have sequenced the complete genomes of six ape species. This analysis will help understand genetic differences between humans and other apes.
