The Srinivas Group's paper "Mechanics of mouse blastocyst hatching revealed by a hydrogel-based microdeformation assay" has been published in PNAS.
Blastocyst hatching is crucial for successful implantation of mammalian embryos and a common failure point during IVF.
They have developed a technique to measure blastocyst pressure, enabling them to quantify physiological parameters and provide additional measures of efficiency in IVF optimization.
The technique reveals that mechanical stretching of the zona by the blastocyst is essential for efficient hatching.
The full article can be viewed here.