The precise cellular patterning and decisions of early embryogenesis have been hard to mimic in vitro. Here, the authors culture murine embryonic and trophoblast stem cells together with extra-embryonic endoderm stem cells to form embryo-like structures (ETX-embryoids), which can initiate an implantation response.

The establishment of functional vasculatures requires the specification of newly formed vessels into veins and arteries. Here, Neal et al. use a combination of genetic approaches in mice and zebrafish to show that BMP signalling, via ALK3 and SMAD1/5, is required for venous specification during blood vessel development.

Li et al. show that the epithelial–mesenchymal-transition transcription factor Snail induces claudin-11 expression and suppresses RhoA activity, thereby promoting collective migration and tumour progression in head and neck cancer.