From Cell to Embryo
![](https://cdn.shanghai.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/styles/content_page_slideshow_display/public/field/image/stephen-small-talk_940-350.jpg?itok=U0Nqtfai)
Feb 19 2016
Almost all humans are born with two arms, two legs, twenty digits, two eyes, two ears, a single nose -- a consistency that is no accident. On February 17, Professor Stephen Small, brought “Molecular Mechanisms of Embryo Formation from a Single Cell” to a group of spellbound listeners at NYU Shanghai. He showed the “powerful genetic mechanisms” at play during conception using the fruit fly Drosophila as a model. His talk focused on how the “boundaries of gene expression divide the embryo into regions” and organize how the mature body plan is shaped and structured.