title: The Carnegie Department of Embryology at 100: Looking Forward.
abstract: Biological research has a realistic chance within the next 50 years of discovering the basic mechanisms by which metazoan genomes encode the complex morphological structures and capabilities that characterize life as we know it. However, achieving those goals is now threatened by researchers who advocate an end to basic research on nonmammalian organisms. For the sake of society, medicine, and the science of biology, the focus of biomedical research should place more emphasis on basic studies guided by the underlying evolutionary commonality of all major animals, as manifested in their genes, pathways, cells, and organs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Embryology, Carnegie Institution for Science, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Electronic address: spradling@ciwemb.edu.
authors.forename: Allan C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Spradling
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D004626:Embryology / Q000266:history / Q000639:trends*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans
keywords: Biology research; Evolution; Future; Model organisms