Controlling organoid symmetry breaking uncovers an excitable system underlying human axial elongation.

The human embryo breaks symmetry to form the anterior-posterior axis of the body. As the embryo elongates along this axis, progenitors in the tail bud give rise to tissues that generate spinal cord, skeleton, and musculature. This raises the question of how the embryo achieves axial elongation and patterning.

In-vivo high resolution AFM topographic imaging of Caenorhabditis elegans reveals previously unreported surface structures of cuticle mutants.

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a powerful method for topographic imaging of surfaces with nanometer resolution. AFM offers significant advantages over scanning electron microscopy (SEM) including the acquisition of quantitative 3D-images and biomechanical information. More importantly, for in-vivo biological imaging, AFM does not require sample dehydration/labeling.