Embryo's survival can be predicted based on egg's movement

Rhythmic activity detected in newly fertilised mouse eggs may provide a novel and non-invasive screening method for identifying embryos most likely to survive a full-term pregnancy, according to research published in Nature Communications...[Read More]

TV Review: Bang Goes the Theory

'Bang goes the theory' is a TV show that aims to bring science to the masses by 'putting science and technology to the test'. It tries to achieve this with the aid of four fairly young enthusiastic presenters and a fast-paced style. But did the show achieve its aim with IVF?...[Read More]

Controversial egg modification technique could increase IVF success in older women

A controversial new technique to improve the quality of eggs from older women undergoing IVF is being developed by Japanese scientists. Because the procedure involves using eggs from two women to create a single viable egg for fertilisation, it has sparked a media furore over the potential creation of what have been inaccurately dubbed 'three-parent embryos'....[Read More]

Reflecting on the role of PET and BioNews

We publish BioNews issue 450 as the new UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill heads from the Lords to the House of Commons. A lot has happened in the fields of human genetics, assisted reproduction and embryo research since BioNews 400, including the rejuvenation of PET! A year on, we...[Read More]

HFEA authorises research using human-animal hybrid embryos

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) License Committee has granted two one-year licenses permitting scientists at Kings College London and Newcastle University to carry out research using human-animal embryos. Over the past 12 months the HFEA has been deliberating on whether the creation of embryos using...[Read More]

A New Year, new fertility and embryology laws - and a new director for PET

Happy New Year. I would like to introduce myself as the new director of Progress Educational Trust (PET), the UK charity that publishes BioNews. Throughout its 15 year history, PET has been dedicated to facilitating informed discussion in the areas of assisted reproduction, embryo research and human genetics, via public...[Read More]

The HFEA's 'cybrid embryo' decision is good news for patients

Following its public consultation, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has announced its decision that there is 'no fundamental reason to prevent cytoplasmic hybrid research' and that 'individual research teams should be able to undertake research projects involving the creation of cytoplasmic hybrid - or 'cybrid' - embryos if they can...[Read More]

HFEA gives green light to 'cybrid' embryo research

The UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has agreed in principle to allow the creation of embryos that contain both human and animal material. 'Cybrid' embryo research - a technique to derive human embryonic stem (ES) cells using 'hollowed-out' animal eggs - has been the focus of...[Read More]

Parliamentary committee backs 'hybrid embryos'

The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has challenged the UK Government's decision to propose a ban on the creation of hybrid or chimera embryos, calling such a move 'unnecessary'. In the report, the MPs said: 'We find that the creation of human-animal chimera or hybrid...[Read More]

Embryos, hybrid embryos and UK law

The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee's report, 'Government Proposals for the Regulation of Hybrid and Chimera Embryos', is its response to two related events: firstly the UK Government's intention to outlaw the creation of such entities, announced in December 2006 in its White Paper (1), and secondly the...[Read More]

Science adviser backs animal eggs for human stem cells

The UK Government's chief scientific adviser has expressed his support for proposals to use animal eggs in the creation of human embryonic stem (ES) cells for research purposes. Sir David King said last week that such work should be allowed under tight regulations, adding that it...[Read More]

Call for oversight of 'reprogenetics' in US

The US needs broader regulation of 'reprogenetics': medical technologies that involve the creation, use and storage of human egg, sperm or embryos, according to a US bioethics centre report on the subject. Co-author Lori Knowles told the Scientist magazine last week that 'the really important thing is for some action...[Read More]

No more research on 'three-parent embryos'?

Researchers from Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China have succeeded in creating a pregnancy using an embryo containing the genetic material of three different people. An egg cell taken from one woman was fertilised by in vitro fertilisation (IVF), creating a one-cell embryo, or zygote. The nucleus of the zygote...[Read More]

Mature mouse eggs produced in the lab

A team of Japanese scientists has successfully matured mouse eggs in the laboratory, opening up the possibility of preserving the fertility of young female cancer sufferers. The research team, led by Izuho Hatada, took very early eggs from mouse fetuses and were able to mature them and use them to...[Read More]

Cytoplasm transfer technique further criticised

The controversial program using cytoplasmic transplantation - adding cytoplasm from the egg of a healthy donor woman to that surrounding the nucleus of an infertile woman's egg - has been further criticised this week after it was disclosed that two of the babies created had genetic abnormalities. Although it was subsequently shown...[Read More]

Three parents and a baby?

It's strange how scientific studies become news stories. Usually, science journalists trawl the reputable journals for published papers which seem to have important or controversial findings. They write up the findings in layman's terms and get them published the following day. But the latest controversy in reproductive science has taken...[Read More]

Babies born with three 'parents'

Scientists in the US have announced that babies have been born carrying the DNA of three parents: two women and a man. The babies were the result of a controversial program using ooplasmic transplantation - effectively adding cytoplasm from a donor woman's egg to that surrounding the nucleus of an infertile...[Read More]

Call for ban on germline gene therapy

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has called for a moratorium on germline gene therapy - treating diseases by altering the genetic information in the egg, sperm or embryo. Changing the human genome in ways that could be passed on from one generation to the next would be...[Read More]

New egg fusion technique

A team of French, Spanish and Italian researchers has developed a new technique that may one day allow some infertile women to have their own genetic child. The new method, reported by the scientists in this month's issue of Human Reproduction, involves replacing the genetic information of a donor egg...[Read More]

Cytoplasmic transfer for older women

Doctors at a conference in Sydney, Australia, reported on a new and experimental technique that combines the genetic material of two women's eggs. Designed to give older women with poor quality eggs the chance to bear their own genetic children, the technique involves injecting the cytoplasm of a healthy donated...[Read More]