Dance of Fate

The journey from the first cells of an embryo to the millions in an adult is complex and perilous, but it’s a story that happens time and again across individuals and species. Viewing the path they take is key to understanding how disease develops when cells take a wrong turn during development. To help track the journey researchers have created an atlas of cell movement and behaviour in the full process from zebrafish embryo to adult. The resource combines high resolution video of individual cells dividing and migrating during development (pictured) with complex data on which genes and molecules take hold at each stage to determine each cell’s fate. Unpicking the precise science behind this intricate dance and understanding how our cells fulfil their destiny could help us avoid disease and ensure we remain masters of our own.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

Website

• Video from work by Merlin Lange and colleagues
• Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, CA, USA
• Video originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in Cell, November 2024