developmental biology

American  

noun

1. the branch of biology dealing with the processes of growth and change that transform an organism from a fertilized egg or asexual reproductive unit, as a spore or gemmule, to an adult.

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developmental biology Cultural  

1. The study of the processes by which an organism develops from a zygote to its full structure. This field includes the study of cellular differentiation as well as body structure development. (See also embryology.)

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Etymology

Origin of developmental biology

First recorded in 1970–75

Example Sentences

Nathan Shatz, who earned his molecular, cellular and developmental biology degree from Michigan, is a co-founder of Milieu.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026

These findings could have wide ranging significance for developmental biology and medical research.

From Science Daily • Mar. 5, 2026

Greider, a distinguished professor of molecular, cell, and developmental biology at UC Santa Cruz, and a University Professor at Johns Hopkins, was the senior author on the paper and led the work.

From Science Daily • Apr. 11, 2024

What are some of the big remaining open questions in the field of developmental biology?

From Scientific American • Nov. 9, 2023

When cloning and stem cell technology arrived in the late 1990s, Martinez Arias immediately saw that these areas had the potential to address questions in developmental biology that had been previously unanswerable.

From Scientific American • Nov. 9, 2023