Embryology News and Research

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Embryology is the study of the development of an embryo. An embryo is defined as any organism in an early stage well before birth or hatching, or in plants, before germination occurs.

Embryonic stem cell therapy patents knocked back in Europe

The European Union's highest court ruled Tuesday that scientists cannot patent stem cell techniques that use human embryos for research, a decision some scientists said could threaten major medical advances if it prevents biotech companies from turning a profit.

20 Oct 2011

National award encourages bio-science student researchers

A key challenge for the bio-sciences sector is to keep its best research graduates in science and in Australia. The national student awards recognise and encourage promising research students and raise awareness of biosciences research translation and applications.

17 Oct 2011

British scientist wins NYSCF - Robertson Stem Cell Prize

The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) announced today that a British stem cell scientist working to cure blindness will be the first recipient of The New York Stem Cell Foundation - Robertson Prize in Stem Cell Research, a $200,000 prize awarded annually for extraordinary achievement in translational stem cell research.

12 Oct 2011

ASHG to honor U of U geneticist with William Allan Award

As a teenager just moved to Iowa from war-ravaged Germany in 1951, John M. Opitz, M.D., wanted to study developmental biology, but his "very Prussian" mother insisted he go to medical school instead.

12 Oct 2011

Thriving stem cells created by cloning technique

In a breakthrough that has been debated and awaited for long, scientists have finally derived colonies of embryonic stem cells from human embryos created using cloning technology.

6 Oct 2011

Sperm donors may father over 150 children

Most sperm donors assume that they would father a few children. But with the news that some donors have fathered over 100 kids there have been calls for tighter regulation. It has been discovered that some sperm banks allow donors to father lots and lots of kids — one has over 150. And with these very large groups of half-siblings come risks: rare genetic conditions could be spread more widely through the gene pool, and children of the same donor could meet and, unbeknownst to them, commit incest.

6 Sep 2011

MYCN amplification can serve as a favorable prognostic indicator for neuroblastoma

Neuroblastoma, a malignant tumor that primarily affects infants and young children, is a leading cause of death for children with cancer. When amplification of the MYCN oncogene is found in the tumor, it usually indicates an aggressive tumor with rapid progression of the disease and a poor outcome. Thus MYCN amplification has come to be used as a prognostic indicator.

12 Aug 2011

Blood test early in pregnancy to detect baby’s gender

While carrying the child, a mother's blood has cell-free fetal DNA floating around in it, and it's possible to use this to test for the baby's sex. In a meta-analysis that covered more, the test was found to be 95% efficient in guessing the sex of the fetus — and it works from as early as seven weeks. As the fetus and the placenta develop, the amount of DNA present in the mother increases, boosting the accuracy of the test, which hits its peak at 20 weeks.

12 Aug 2011

Stem cells could provide sperm for infertile males

Researchers have been successful in creating sperm-producing germ cells from stem cells in a lab and transferred them into infertile mice, which after the treatment were able to produce healthy offspring. This new development could help thousands of infertile men become fathers if the method proves similarly effective in humans.

5 Aug 2011

AAA journal secures number 1 rank in science education category

What began as a gleam in the eye of now co-editor Rick Drake and colleagues at the anatomy chairs' meeting in 2006, launched in 2008, and is now the highest ranking journal in science education? If you said Anatomical Sciences Education (ASE), you would be absolutely correct!

5 Aug 2011

Insect virus holds key to safer stem cell therapy: Singapore scientists

The future of regenerative medicine lies in harnessing the potential of the human body to renew and repair itself. Now, scientists at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN), the world's first bioengineering and nanotechnology research institute, have developed a new genetic engineering technique that promises safer stem cell therapy for cancer patients. Using an insect virus, the team of researchers successfully inserted a therapeutic gene into a safe site in the DNA of human embryonic stem cells without compromising the functionality of the engineered cells.

28 Jul 2011

U.S. Judge approves federal funding for embryonic research

Federal funding of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research is now legal in the United States. Chief judge of the US District Court for the District of Columbia Royce Lamberth has ruled on the case Sherley et al. v. Sebelius, in favor of hESC research. This overturns an existing law that prohibits the government from funding research that destroys the embryo.

27 Jul 2011

Maternal smoking during pregnancy causes serious birth defects

To dispel any uncertainty about the serious harm caused by smoking to babies and pregnant women, the first-ever comprehensive systematic review of all studies over the past 50 years has established clearly that maternal smoking causes a range of serious birth defects including heart defects, missing/deformed limbs, clubfoot, gastrointestinal disorders, and facial disorders.

12 Jul 2011

Merck Serono announces recipients of second Grant for Fertility Innovation

Merck Serono, a division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, today announces the recipients of its second Grant for Fertility Innovation.

8 Jul 2011

Smoking pregnant mums have smaller unhealthier babies

Professor Nick Macklon of Southampton University says even though most women now understand there is “overwhelming evidence” that smoking during pregnancy is harmful to the developing child, they continue to do so.

7 Jul 2011

Gum disease linked to infertility

According to experts gum disease may reduce the chances of getting pregnant. Poor oral health is as bad for fertility as obesity - delaying conception by about two months says latest research.

7 Jul 2011

Overall risk of stillbirth low among ART children

The group looked at 60,650 singletons in a common Nordic database from ART registers in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden and compared these to a control group of 360,022 naturally conceived (NC) singletons. In both groups 0.4 % of singletons were stillborn, with a definition of stillbirth as a dead child after 22 weeks of gestation.

6 Jul 2011

Fiscal problems could be mitigated by ART conceived children

In 2009, 1,547 ART children were born in public clinics in Denmark, projecting a net tax revenue of -224 million and -247 million in 25 and 50 years respectively. The authors of the study calculated that reductions of 30-50% in ART cycles following the new policy would lead to cost savings of -67 - -111 million for the Danish government in 2034.

6 Jul 2011

Cumulus cells can provide information about genetic and chromosomal status of eggs

At present, when a woman undergoes preimplantation genetic screening (PGS) in a fertility clinic, doctors are trying to select an egg or an embryo that is healthy and doesn't have a chromosome abnormality such as an extra copy of chromosome 21, which causes Down's syndrome. In order to establish this, they either have to biopsy a part of the egg called the polar body or remove a cell from the embryo for screening. Both procedures are expensive, invasive and can damage the egg or embryo.

6 Jul 2011

Specialist RM clinic helps women achieve subsequent live birth

The researchers studied the records of 987 women with a minimum of three consecutive miscarriages, who had been referred to a specialist RM clinic between 1986 and 2008.

6 Jul 2011