ArticleNature communications2026
The embryo game uncovers hidden cell behaviours.
Article in Nature communications, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Virtual twins and the future of human developmental biology.NPJ systems biology and applications · 2026Review
- The embryo game uncovers hidden cell behaviours.Nature communications · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
While cells are driven to preserve their own survival, they must cooperate to ensure embryo viability. To explore how cellular behaviours shape human development, we intersect evolutionary game theory and in vitro embryo modelling. We focus on cell competition, a conserved cell-cell killing thought to enable embryonic error correction, though few studies directly link it to embryo success. Our collective risk game shows that killing is costly for a cell, but beneficial when the embryo exceeds its target size and the probability of survival is low. Analogously, successful heX-embryoids form within the target size range of the native human embryonic disc and inhibiting cell death produces larger, defective embryoids. Killing and proliferating are responsive cellular behaviours that maintain optimal embryoid size, consistent with their emergence as conditional strategies in our game. Further, conditional killing is a "threat" to restrain over-proliferating cells. Counter-intuitively, cell competition may underpin cooperation in the embryo.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.