Philosophy and goals: With the sequencing of the human genome, a challenge for medical educators is to prepare students to understand and treat developmental disorders at the genetic as well as cell and tissue level. At the same time, the traditional goals of an embryology course -- understanding the organization of the embryo, how signaling molecules influence the final patterning and structure of the tissues and organs of the body, must also be achieved. With these overarching goals, the specific goals of embryology in the University of Michigan Medical School curriculum are to provide this information to students in the context of normal development and following errors (both genetic and environmental) in development.

Initially, the formation of germ cells, fertilization, cleavage and implantation of the embryo, formation first of a two-layered embryo, a three-layered embryo at gastrulation is examined, followed by the process by which the nervous system is formed, neurulation and neural crest migration. The development of the embryonic body plan, the musculoskeletal system, the gut and primitive heart is then considered. After four weeks, the basic body plan of the human embryo and the rudiments of the major organ systems have been laid down, there is an embryonic heartbeat, and the neural tube has closed throughout its length. Lectures on reproductive technologies and the derivation and uses of stem cells, primarily embryonic stem cells, but also tissue-derived or adult stem cells complete the first week.

The Embryology sequence will build on this basic organization to understand the organogenesis of the major structures of the body, the: cardiovascular and respiratory systems, reproductive, kidney, face and pharynx, endocrine development, defects of development (teratology), and changes in the fetus at birth. During each lecture, normal development will be correlated with errors in that process.