Welcome to The Visible Embryo, a comprehensive educational resource on human development from conception to birth.

The Visible Embryo provides visual references for changes in fetal development throughout pregnancy and can be navigated via fetal development or maternal changes.

The National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development awarded Phase I and Phase II Small Business Innovative Research Grants to develop The Visible Embryo in 1993 as a first generation internet teaching tool consolidating human embryology teaching for first year medical students.

Today, The Visible Embryo is linked to over 600 educational institutions and is viewed by more than 1 million visitors each month. The field of early embryology has grown to include the identification of the stem cell as not only critical to organogenesis in the embryo, but equally critical to organ function and repair in the adult human.

The identification and understanding of genetic malfunction, inflammatory responses, and the progression in chronic disease, begins with a grounding in primary cellular and systemic functions manifested in the study of the early embryo.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has created a new Web site to help researchers, doctors and patients obtain reliable information on high-quality clinical trials. Now you can go to one website and search all registers to identify clinical trial research underway around the world!

New type of retinoblastoma in babies

A team of Canadian and international cancer researchers has discovered a new type of retinoblastoma, a rapidly developing eye cancer that affects very young babies– a finding that can immediately change clinical practice and optimize care for these children.

The finding is a breakthrough in recognizing that a single
cancer gene (an oncogene) drives an aggressive
retinoblastoma that starts long before birth
in families with no history of the disease.

The work was published online March 13, 2013 in Lancet Oncology

The team was led by Dr. Brenda Gallie at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network (UHN), an ophthalmologist who is also affiliated with The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and a Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto.

"This research completely challenges conventional thinking and clinical practice," says Dr. Gallie. "The common type of retinoblastoma is initiated by damage to both copies of the RB1 tumor suppressor gene; the predisposition to this type of retinoblastoma can be inherited, so the other eye of the child and those of infant relatives are at risk to develop tumours. When we remove the eye with a large tumour in very young babies and show it is the new oncogene-driven type of retinoblastoma, there is believed to be zero risk for retinoblastoma developing in the other eye or in other infants in the family. This is a major advance in personalized cancer medicine for these children and families."

The oncogene-driven tumours are much larger than those anticipated in children with inherited retinoblastoma at the same age. "The earliest diagnosis comes when parents observe a white (instead of black) pupil of the eye, and the doctors listen to their observations and understand the urgency of referral. Sometimes Mom really does know best and clinicians should pay close attention."

Although less than 2% of unilateral retinoblastoma tumors are driven by the oncogene, the early age of onset predicts that about 1 in 5 babies diagnosed under six months of age actually has oncogene-driven retinoblastoma. "All the babies were completely cured by surgery," says Dr. Gallie.

"We've thought for a long time that all retinoblastoma
were caused by loss of the retinoblastoma gene.

Our study now reveals that's not the whole story:
a new type of retinoblastoma, with normal retinoblastoma
genes, is instead driven by extra copies of a powerful cancer
gene, causing the cancer to grow very rapidly long before
birth. The average age of diagnosis is four months."

Dr. Brenda Gallie
Opthamologist, Professor in the Faculty of Medicine
University of Toronto
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
University Health Network

This study, on which several clinical laboratories collaborated, demonstrates that molecular diagnostics can identify novel malignant diseases that elude traditional microscopic study of tissue. The researchers analysed more than 1,000 primary unilateral non-familial retinoblastoma tumours to validate oncogene-driven retinoblastoma.

The Canadian research team included three UHN Research Institutes; Impact Genetics, Toronto; the B.C. Cancer Research Centre and University of British Columbia, Vancouver; the Cross Centre, Edmonton; The Hospital for Sick Children and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. The international collaborators were from the Netherlands, Germany, France and New Zealand.

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Canadian Retinoblastoma Society, Hyland Foundation, Toronto Netralaya and Doctors Lions Clubs, the Alcon Research Institute, and the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care. Dr. Gallie's research is also funded by The Campbell Family Cancer Research Institute through The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation at UHN.

About the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network

The Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and its research arm, Ontario Cancer Institute, which includes the Campbell Family Cancer Research Institute, have achieved an international reputation as global leaders in the fight against cancer and delivering personalized cancer medicine. The Princess Margaret, one of the top five international cancer research centres, is a member of the University Health Network, which also includes Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Western Hospital and Toronto Rehabilitation Institute. All are research hospitals affiliated with the University of Toronto. For more information, go to http://www.theprincessmargaret.ca or http://www.uhn.ca .

Original article: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/uhn-crd031213.php