School of Medicine

Department of Cell Biology & Anatomy

Virtual Human Embryo (VHE) Project

title imaging5Between 2000 and 2012 the CIL was primarily involved with development of the Virtual Human Embryo Project.

DREM-logo imaging3

The aim of the Digital Reconstruction of Embryonic Morphology (DREM) project was to produce a series of image databases containing the serial sections of representative examples of each of the 23 stages of human embryonic development. The best examples from the Carnegie collection in Washington DC were captured digitally and the images cleaned, restored and aligned. The sections were labeled and compiled into a web app.

Heirloom heading imaging4

HEIRLOOM was a related project funded by the National Library of Medicine. The HEIRLOOM Collection contains searchable databases of the labels for the DREM project in addition to related 3D reconstructions and animations.

 
The original website can be viewed here. The Virtual Human Embryo datasets are also hosted by the Endowment for Human Development (EHD) and they have updated the databases here