First Contact

A mother’s touch can soothe a crying baby, and the importance of that contact begins before the baby is even born, when the interface between the uterus and placenta is an essential location for nutrient exchange and communication. To better understand this interaction while reducing the need for live animals in research, scientists have developed a new miniature lab-grown version of pig placental tissue, and mapped gene expression to different cell types across the maternal-foetal meeting point. Using these ‘organoids’ (pictured, with structural proteins coloured green and red), the team revealed previously unknown communication pathways between maternal and foetal cells, and discovered distinct types of trophoblasts – cells that form the outer layer of a developing embryo and build the placenta. This provides a platform to explore reproductive health and how the placenta nourishes and protects early life.

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

• Image from work by Cole R. McCutcheo and colleagues
• Department of Integrative Immunobiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC, USA
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in PLOS Biology, August 2025