National Library of Medicine Announces Release of “Embryo” App

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, Louisiana State University and National Museum of Health & Medicine Collaborate

 April 28 2011

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/news/apps_embryo.html

The US National Library of Medicine (NLM), the world largest medical library and a component of the National Institutes of Health, has released "Embryo" (http://itunes.apple.com/app/embryo/id422337604), a new app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad.

Embryo is a collaborative project between the NLM, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD), the Virtual Human Embryo Project (Louisiana State University/ http://virtualhumanembryo.lsuhsc.edu/) and the National Museum of Health & Medicine's Human Developmental Anatomy Center (http://nmhm.washingtondc.museum/collections/hdac/).

The National Museum of Health & Medicine's Human Developmental Anatomy Center (HDAC) acquires and maintains collections pertaining to general developmental anatomy and neuroanatomy. Scientists and educators have used the National Museum of Health and Medicine's Carnegie Embryo Collection (http://nmhm.washingtondc.museum/collections/hdac/Carnegie_collection.htm) to define normal human embryo development for decades.  This archival collection was developed between approximately 1887 to 1956 and focuses on normal development in the first eight weeks. The Virtual Human Embryo database was created to provide digital serial sections of human embryos from the collection.

The Embryo app provides this collection of digital serial sections of early stage human embryos for mobile devices. Features include human fertilization videos, photo micrographs of early-stage embryo development, 2D and 3D digital images using visual stack dissections, and a pregnancy calculator.