Leela Mulherkar and the teaching of developmental biology.

The formal teaching of developmental biology in India began in the late nineteen-fifties at the Department of Zoology of the University of Poona. This was due to the efforts of Leela Mulherkar, who on her return from C.H. Waddington's laboratory in Edinburgh, took up the teaching of embryology at the Master's level. Mulherkar began using locally available material to teach how animals develop. They included the embryos of chicken, frog, garden lizard and molluscs, as well as organisms such as hydra and sponges. Her teaching was supported by an active research laboratory that used all these systems to address a variety of questions in embryology and teratology. She used chick embryo explants cultured in vitro extensively in her work. Teaching and research in embryology at the master's and doctoral levels at Poona University subsequently led, in 1977, to the establishment of the Indian Society of Developmental Biologists (InSDB), which is among the most active scientific societies in India.

Embryology and Teratology in the Curricula of Healthcare Courses

Significant changes are occurring worldwide in courses for healthcare studies, including medicine and dentistry. Critical evaluation of the place, timing, and content of components that can be collectively grouped as the anatomical sciences has however yet to be adequately undertaken. Surveys of teaching hours for embryology in US and UK medical courses clearly demonstrate that a dramatic decline in the importance of the subject is in progress, in terms of both a decrease in the number of hours allocated within the medical course and in relation to changes in pedagogic methodologies. In this article, we draw attention to the need to provide within medical and dental curricula a universally accepted terminology for embryology and teratology, to develop core syllabuses and, in addition to providing professional training, to follow the practice of university education in taking students to the frontiers of knowledge. We also discuss different ways of teaching and assessing embryology and teratology, preferring to see the employment of practical methodologies, and we highlight problems related to the poor attitudes of students towards the perceived clinical relevance of embryology and teratology

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A core syllabus for the teaching of embryology and teratology to medical students.

Clinical relevance in the teaching of biomedical sciences within health care courses presupposes that there is internationally agreed core material within the curricula. However, with the exception of a syllabus for neuroanatomy and gross anatomy of the head and neck for medical students, core syllabuses within many of the specialized anatomical sciences have yet to be developed. The International Federation of Associations of Anatomists aims to formulate internationally accepted core syllabuses for all anatomical sciences disciplines initially using Delphi Panels that comprise anatomists, scientists, and clinicians who evaluate syllabus content. Here, the suggestions of a Delphi Panel for embryology and teratology are presented prior to their publication on the website of the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists. Hence, to obtain a more definitive syllabus, it is required that anatomical and embryological/teratological societies, as well as individual anatomists, embryologists and clinicians, freely comment upon, elaborate and amend, this draft syllabus. The goal is to set internationally recognized standards and thereby provide guidelines concerning embryological and teratological knowledge when involved with course development. Clin. Anat. 30:159-167, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The all-or-none phenomenon revisited.

One of the more pervasive tenets of teratology is the "all-or-none" phenomenon, which refers to the concept that embryonic exposure that occurs before organogenesis results in either no adverse embryonic outcome or in embryonic death. This concept has been used extensively in genetic counseling of pregnant women who have inadvertently undergone an exposure in the very early stages of pregnancy, frequently before the pregnancy has been recognized. Herein, we review the data that supports the all-or-none concept and the exceptions to this general rule. In the absence of further human evidence to the contrary, and given the many women exposed to medications or environmental agents before learning of their pregnancies, it would be prudent to continue to counsel pregnant women using the all-or-none hypothesis to avoid needless interruption of pregnancy out of unfounded fear of an adverse pregnancy outcome.

Funding for teratology information services: up, down, and all around.

Funding for Teratology Information Services has been an ongoing struggle over the 25 years of its existence. Traditional and novel funding mechanisms have been explored with varying success. The importance of providing teratology risk assessment and counseling to all women of reproductive age is now an established health care objective. Sufficient and stable funding for these services is essential.

The CTIS Womb to Classroom Screening Program for the detection of agents with adverse effects on neuropsychological development.

Over the last several decades, federal agencies engaged in the screening of environmental or pharmaceutical agents have recognized the need to conduct research in animal models to identify agents that have classic teratogenic effects as well as effects on neural and behavioral development. Many questions typically addressed in rodent models can be further addressed using real-world, everyday human exposures. Although some postmarketing surveillance programs have been put in place to examine the influences on birth characteristics, it is now urgent that programs be launched to examine the long-term risks associated with exposure to the many medications, drugs, and environmental chemicals for which data are currently unavailable and unexplored. The California Teratogen Information Service (CTIS), established in 1983, and its corresponding Clinical Research Program represent the oldest national program directed at identifying pregnancy risk factors and exposures associated with adverse pregnancy outcome, including behavioral dysfunction. In recognition of the rising rates of developmental disorders involving compromised mental ability, in 2007, CTIS committed to the development of a more comprehensive screening program designed to detect relationships between adverse prenatal exposures and compromised human neurobehavioral development. The "CTIS Womb to Classroom Screening Program for the Detection of Agents with Adverse Effects on Neuropsychological Development" is the first program designed to identify agents not yet known to be of concern.