Embryo News and Research

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Effect of new Italian law on the choices available to infertile parents

Three presentations to the '21st annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology highlighted the effect of the new Italian law on the choices available to infertile parents.

21 Jun 2005

Eggs from embryonic stem cells could benefit sterile women

Monash University researchers have developed a process that causes embryonic stem (ES) cells to develop into ovarian structures containing eggs.

21 Jun 2005

Zebrafish provides cancer researchers powerful new insights into the development of malignant melanoma

The embryo of a tiny, silvery tropical fish found in many home aquariums is providing cancer researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine with powerful new insights into the development of malignant melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer.

20 Jun 2005

Early embryos with abnormal chromosomes are capable of returning to normal when grown in culture in the laboratory

While such embryos are not capable of developing into normal foetuses if implanted in a woman's womb, the discovery has important implications for stem cell production, especially in countries where the creation of embryos for stem cell research is discouraged or even banned.

20 Jun 2005

Proof that single embryo transfer (SET) produces babies that are healthier than those born after multiple implantations

Two studies presented today (Tuesday 21 June 2005) at the 21st annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology provide further proof that single embryo transfer (SET) produces babies that are healthier than those born after multiple implantations.

20 Jun 2005

Australian researchers develop process that causes embryonic stem cells to develop into ovarian structures containing eggs

The researchers believe the process could in future be used to develop eggs for sterile women that contain the women's own genetic material.

20 Jun 2005

Reproductive tourism is on the increase in Europe

Reproductive tourism is on the increase in Europe, but rather than condemning it, we should regard it as a "safety valve" that helps us to avoid moral conflict, according to a European ethics expert.

20 Jun 2005

New way of obtaining embryonic stem cells that avoids contamination by other types of cells

Scientists in the USA have discovered a new way of obtaining embryonic stem cells that avoids contamination by other types of cells and reduces the numbers of embryos needed to create embryonic stem cell lines.

20 Jun 2005

Stem cells grown in lab mirror normal developmental steps

Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a way to study the earliest steps of human blood development using human embryonic stem cells grown in a lab dish instead of the embryos themselves.

20 Jun 2005

British team grow sperm and eggs from stem cells

British scientists have made a major breakthrough with the discovery that both sperm and eggs can be grown from stem cells.

20 Jun 2005

Scientists prove that human embryonic stem cells can develop in the laboratory into the early forms of cells that eventually become eggs or sperm

Their work opens up the possibility that eggs and sperm could be grown from stem cells and used for assisted reproduction, therapeutic cloning and the creation of more stem cells for further research and for the improved treatments for patients suffering from a range of diseases.

19 Jun 2005

Research moves us closer to understanding how complicated network connections are wired up during embryonic development

A newborn baby moves, breathes and cries in part because a network of nerves called motor neurons carry signals from the infant's brain and spinal cord to muscles throughout its body.

3 Jun 2005

Baby boy is first successful birth in Canada from frozen eggs

McGill University Health Center (MUHC) in Montreal yesterday announced the first successful birth in Canada resulting from frozen eggs. A healthy baby boy, weighing 3740 grams was born on April 29 to a 26-year-old mother who had suffered from infertility for two years.

31 May 2005

IVF treatment less effective in women living with a smoker

According to Canadian study passive smoking is apparently as damaging to a woman’s chances of having successful fertility treatment as being a smoker.

26 May 2005

Team IDs mechanism for multiplying adult stem cells

While research on human embryonic stem cells gets most of the press, scientists are also investigating the potential therapeutic uses of adult stem cells. Although less controversial, this research faces other difficulties. Adult stem cells are extremely difficult to isolate and multiply in the lab.

24 May 2005

Vatican says embryo cloning is a crime

An announcement by British researchers saying they had succeeded in creating the country's first - and the world's second - cloned embryo has provoked a top Vatican official to condemn the creation of cloned embryos, describing it as a crime and saying it represents an offence to science.

23 May 2005

Researchers generate patient-specific stem cells

Researchers have isolated the first human embryonic stem cell lines specifically tailored to match the nuclear DNA of patients, both males and females of various ages, suffering from disease or spinal cord injury.

20 May 2005

Embryonic body wash controls left-right development

Humans and other animals may appear to be symmetrical on the outside, but symmetry is only skin deep. Many body organs, such as the stomach, the heart and the liver, are tipped to the right or left side. So how does the developing embryo distinguish left from right?

20 May 2005

Scientists clone human patients for stem cells

The team of South Korean scientists who cloned the first human embryo to use for research have now have used the same technology to create batches of embryonic stem cells from nine patients.

19 May 2005

Unrestrained retina too much of a good thing

When primitive nerve cells begin forming an eye in the mouse embryo, they are programmed to build a retina. But the ability to see depends upon connecting the retina to the brain via the optic nerve. Unless these embryonic cells are given the right cue at the right time, they mistakenly form a huge eye that consists entirely of retina and lacks the optic nerve.

18 May 2005