Establishing a stepping stone to enable wider research in human development
The Wellcome-funded Human Developmental Biology Initiative (HDBI) is a 5-year, £10 million research project involving 25 groups from across the UK and Europe.
We want to better understand how humans develop before birth.
– from one cell to the trillions of cells that make up a human being.
There’s a lot that scientists don’t understand about how a single fertilised egg can give rise to over 200 different types of cells that form the organs and tissues in our bodies.
The overall goal of the project is to support wider research in human development, which is needed to better understand how humans grow and develop, and how problems with these processes can sometimes arise and lead to miscarriages and congenital abnormalities.
Although much can be learned from studying the development of other animal species, there are substantial differences between humans and other organisms.
It is therefore vital to advance our knowledge beyond that inferred from other species and to study human development directly. To achieve this, the project will focus on four complementary systems: the early embryo, the developing heart and lung, the central nervous system and the blood and immune system.
Our Research
Early
Development
Studying how the fertilised egg gives rise to all of the cells in the human body.
Cardiopulmonary
Development
Studying how the fertilised egg gives rise to all of the cells in the human body.
Blood & Immune
Development
Studying how the blood and immune systems develop
before birth.
Research Tissues
& Ethics
Where do the human tissues come from and how is their use in research regulated?
Public
Engagement
How will we open our research to broader questioning and consideration by the public?