The animal's placenta is packed with proteins called growth factors which stimulate the production of cells that make up hair follicles — bulb‑like roots in the skin hairs grow from.

“We also don’t know what’s happening in normal placenta development,” said Fogarty. The lack of physiologically relevant models of placental development stymies efforts to close these knowledge gaps.

Researchers have developed an advanced model that facilitates the study of drug metabolism during pregnancy by ...