They discovered that a gene called VGLL1 (vestigial like family member 1) was turned on very early during placenta formation.

We have all had one, and we owe our lives to it. It’s the first organ to develop and it simultaneously serves as the lungs, kidneys, immune system, and digestive tract, to name a few, in a fetus while ...

Our understanding of human placenta formation just deepened with the discovery of a gene essential to early embryonic ...

Scientists demonstrate the direct transmission of bisphenol A (BPA) from a mother to her developing child via the placenta could negatively impact fetal brain development. In a new study, scientists ...

A patchwork of genomic differences in the placenta may explain the organ’s “live fast, die young” strategy and its connections to cancer. In 2008, while the medical resident Sam Behjati was doing his ...

A deficit in the way the placenta expresses the gene for a hormone called insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) appears linked to insulin resistance during pregnancy, researchers reported. Photo by ...

New research found a possible explanation for the benefits of maternal exercise on fetal development, in obese mothers: it's down to improved placental function, which prevents the fetus from growing ...

The placenta regulates the exchange of nutrients, gases, and metabolic products between a pregnant woman and the foetus, thereby ensuring healthy ...

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of nearly 10,000 long-lasting chemical compounds that stay in the ...