With an eye to the future - preliminary results of clinical trial in human embryonic stem cell-based therapy of macular degeneration

Last week, Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) of Massachusetts, USA, made two important announcements regarding human embryonic stem (hES) cell-based therapies for the potential treatment of Stargardt's dystrophy and age-related macular degeneration, two devastating degenerative disease leading to blindness....[Read More]

Event Review: European Union Ban on Human Embryonic Stem Cell Patents - A Threat to Science and the Rule of Law

The recent ruling of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) excluding inventions relating to human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) from patentability has sparked a heated debate in the bioscience, ethics and law communities...[Read More]

Early life factors may impact genes of Glasgow's poorest, study claims

Unhealthy lifestyles associated with social deprivation may have detrimental effects on DNA before birth, say scientists. A study of adults living in Glasgow shows a correlation between deprivation and DNA methylation - a normal process that occurs mainly during embryonic development and regulates gene activity...[Read More]

Crystal ball gazing: human embryonic stem cells in 2012

In the last few months of 2011, a couple of stories on human embryonic stem cells hit the headlines. Both were bad news for stem cell researchers...[Read More]

Chromosome analysis increases IVF success

A new method of looking for chromosomal abnormalities in embryos can increase the chance of successful IVF implantation, a recent study in the journal Fertilisation In Vitro has shown....[Read More]

To twin or not to twin? That is the (unasked) question

A recent spate of articles celebrating the birth of an IVF 'twin' five years after her brother left me perplexed. Why was this news, when embryo freezing has been in use since the mid-1980s? And as the children were not identical by what definition were they twins?

S.H. v Austria denies infertile Europeans human rights

Procreative liberty and the right to legal recognition of parent-child relationships continue to be prominent themes in disputes between individual citizens and government over access to assisted reproduction. The judiciary has been largely reluctant to state whether resort to reproductive technology is a human right...[Read More]

One or two embryos in IVF? It depends on your age, study says

The transfer of one or two embryos during IVF should be dependent on the age of the mother, according to a UK study...[Read More]

South Africa shows a way to ensure more predictability in surrogacy arrangements

A new surrogacy law in South Africa suggests a way to improve those in the UK – by making surrogacy agreements enforceable. In the UK, commissioning parents can only find out after the child is born if they can become the legal parents...[Read More]

Rise in 'selective reproduction' due to increase in IVF, experts say

There has been a rise in the number of British women choosing to give birth to fewer children following multiple pregnancy, leading to renewed calls for restrictions on the number of embryos implanted during IVF....[Read More]

Freezing embryos after IVF may result in 'healthier' babies

A new study has shown that babies born following IVF using frozen embryos may be born later and weigh more than babies born from fresh embryos....[Read More]

First chimeric monkeys born in US

Three chimeric rhesus monkeys born in the USA have been described as the world's first primate chimeras...[Read More]

US embryonic stem cell researchers face logistical and funding difficulties

A survey of over 200 human embryonic stem cell (hESC) researchers in the US has found almost four in ten respondents had experienced delays in obtaining cell lines and over one-quarter said they were unable to obtain a required cell line at all....[Read More]

Progress Educational Trust Conference: Should Assisted Conception Always Be Evidence-Based?

In what is now synonymous with Progress Educational Trust (PET)'s ethos, the final session of the annual conference, 'The Best Possible Start in Life: The Robust and Responsive Embryo', was a free-form debate. Following on from the previous sessions where a wealth of eminent researchers gave informative and often provocative talks, Guardian columnist Zoe Williams had the task of chairing what proved to be an entertaining debate...[Read More]

Progress Educational Trust Conference: Growing Concern?

The consequences of assisted reproductive technology (ART) are a matter of great concern, whether this is the development of the embryo, the perinatal health of the mother, or the ongoing health of the child....[Read More]

New law empowers UK Government to transfer HFEA's functions

The Public Bodies Bill - which empowers the UK Government to transfer the functions of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), the country's regulator of fertility treatment and embryo research - has received Royal Assent and has become the Public Bodies Act. This Act represents the realisation in statute of the Coalition Government's longstanding plans for a 'bonfire of the quangos'...[Read More]

Progress Educational Trust conference: Making the grade

The third session of the Progress Educational Trust's annual conference 'The Best Possible Start in Life: The Robust and Responsive Embryo' boasted a redoubtable roll-call of eminent clinicians and researchers as speakers. This being the case, I couldn't help wondering if the decision to limit such luminaries to ten minutes apiece was a wise one...[Read More]

Frozen embryos 'lost' by Ramsgate IVF

A fertility clinic in Kent is under investigation after reports that staff may have lost a woman's embryos. Alison Austin-Hennessy, 31, said she and her husband Michael were informed by a consultant at the private Chaucer Hospital that their embryos had been misplaced....[Read More]

Book Review: The Reproductive System at a Glance

As a biomedical research scientist recently returned to university to retrain as a medic, I am very much the target audience for the re-issued academic textbook 'The Reproductive System at a Glance', which provides a succinct guide to all facets of human reproduction...[Read More]

Progress Educational Trust Conference: Introduction to the embryo and its out of body experience

Progress Educational Trust (PET)'s annual conference, 2011, 'The Best Possible Start in Life: The Robust and Responsive Embryo', started with two fantastic sessions chaired by Dr Virginia Bolton, consultant embryologist at the assisted conception unit at Guy's Hospital, London, UK....[Read More]