“Stembryo Engineering” Featuring Dr. Alfonso Martinez Arias
Dr. Alfonso Martinez Arias is the CREA Research Professor in the Department of Systems Bioengineering of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. He talks about his path to developmental biology research and developing gastruloids to model human development. He also discusses standards for embryo models and his recent research on hematopoiesis.

Today, we are chatting with a pioneer in human embryo modeling, Dr Alfonso Martinez Arias. We discuss his lab’s recent work developing human gastruloids, as well as establishing proper standards for human embryo models.
Dr. Arun Sharma, Co-Host
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This Episode's Immunology Roundup:
- Tuft Cell Regeneration – Human tuft cells can survive irradiation damage and retain the ability to generate all other epithelial cell types.
- Heart-Forming Organoids – hPSC-derived heart-forming organoids recapitulate aspects of heart, vasculature, and foregut co-developments.
- Neural Stem Cell Aging – A CRISPR screen revealed genetic interventions that boost the function of old neural stem cells.
- Symmetry Breaking in Gastruloids – Researchers used synthetic “signal-recording” gene circuits to trace the evolution of signaling patterns in gastruloids.