SPECIES OF THE MONTH: JULY 2013

YES! HE IS NEW! THOUGH NOT A NEW SPECIES

A baby boy has been born to a couple in the USA by in vitro Fertilization IVF involving the use of a new embryo screening approach. The method uses the latest DNA sequencing techniques and aims to increase IVF success rates while being more affordable for more couples.

The work was a collaborative effort. It received significant support from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, a partnership between Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust and the University of Oxford. 

Dr Dagan Wells of Oxford University used the  ‘next-generation sequencing’ to identify embryos with the correct number of chromosomes, and may cut hundreds of pounds off the cost of embryo screening.

The majority of embryos produced by IVF aren’t able to lead to successful pregnancies, and scientists have sought to find ways of identifying the embryos that should be implanted to give the greatest chance of success.

The researchers explicitly do not read out the whole DNA code for each embryo. They deliberately limit sequencing to around 2% of the embryo’s DNA, more than enough to determine the number of chromosomes present, but insufficient to reveal the status of individual genes.

Link: http://oxfordbrc.nihr.ac.uk