Non-invasive PGT-A did not improve pregnancy rates
A non-invasive form of PGT-A did not improve pregnancy rates in a clinical trial, but did reduce early miscarriages...
BioNews
Blastocyst
A mammalian embryo in the first stage of development, when the fertilised egg has grown into a hollow ball made up of a few hundred cells.
160 articles
Image by Matthew Daniels via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts human cells, showing the stages of cell division.
Base editing clarifies risks of genome editing in human embryos
Base editing can efficiently alter the DNA of human embryos, but it can also result in unintended genomic changes....
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
Egg freezing is not reproductive insurance – so what does 'success' really mean?
Dr Kylie Baldwin and Stuart Lavery consider the complexities behind egg freezing, exploring why women freeze their eggs, what 'success' means, and what happens to eggs that are never used...
Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the output from a DNA sequencing machine.
Can PGT-A give us an accurate picture of the genetic content of embryos?
PGT-A is widely used to assess the chromosome status of IVF embryos, but how accurately can a biopsy of just a handful of cells predict an embryo's genetic makeup? Dr Desislava Staneva explains why interpreting PGT-A results is more complex than it may first appear...
IVF success rates increase while minimising multiple embryo transfers
News from ESHRE – improvements in IVF protocols have improved birth rates, while reducing the number of multiple pregnancies…
Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false colour).
Improved embryo models reveal mechanisms of early human development
A simplified stem-cell-based embryo model of the early human embryo has revealed a key mechanism required for blastocyst cavity formation...
Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the output from a DNA sequencing machine.
Donor Conception and Genomics: Sperm, Eggs, Embryos, Mitochondria
The fifth session of 'What Does Genomics Mean for Fertility Treatment?' – the 2025 Annual Conference of PET – brought together clinical, scientific and ethical perspectives on the relationship between genomics and donor conception...
'The odd throuple': Accuracy and authenticity in the IVF film 'Joy'
Nick Hopwood, from the Department of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, discusses the accuracy and authenticity of the film 'Joy: The Birth of IVF'...
Seeing the unseen: Live imaging of late-stage preimplantation human embryos
A novel method for visualising human blastocyst development – which has led to findings with implications for PGT-A – is described by Dr Ahmed Abdelbaki, a postdoctoral researcher in the Niakan Lab at the University of Cambridge...
Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false colour).
Eggs created from human skin cells and then fertilised
Egg cells have been created from human skin cell DNA, which have then been fertilised with sperm to create embryos...