Embryo Project Encyclopedia
The Embryo Project Encyclopedia (https://embryo.asu.edu) is an open-access digital encyclopedia devoted to recording and contextualizing the science of embryos, development, and reproduction. The collection of documents, images, and multimedia housed here serves as the Encyclopedia's permanent archive.
Jane Maienschein, ASU University Professor, Regents Professor, and Director of the Biology and Society Program, started the Embryo Project Encyclopedia in 2007 with support from the National Science Foundation.
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- All Subjects: Cell Communication
- Creators: MacCord, Kate
Between February 1969 and August 1970 Edward Kollar and Grace Baird, from the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, published three papers that established the role of the mesenchyme in tooth induction. Drawing upon a history of using tissue interactions to understand differentiation, Kollar and Baird designed their experiments to understand how differentiated structures become specified. Their work overturned a widely accepted model that epithelium controls the identity of the structure, a phenomenon called structural specificity. Interactions between epithelium and mesenchyme control the development and differentiation of many parts during embryonic development, including structures like the gastrointestinal tract and hair. Thus, the realization that mesenchyme drives induction and differentiation during epithelio-mesenchymal interactions had far-reaching effects.