Past and future of human developmental biology

Research directly on human embryos has gone through cycles of interest and neglect. The recent revitalization, including the making of 'human developmental biology', depended on fresh supplies of material and demand for medically relevant work. Human studies relied on mice but rejected simple extrapolation from this model mammal. Now, it is time to take stock while scanning the horizon for further change. Will research on human development be facilitated or frustrated? Will comparative approaches bring a greater variety of animal models into the picture? Will human stem-cell-based embryo models secure ever larger roles as exemplars of vertebrate development?