TV Review: Fighting for Fertility
What does it take to make a family when natural conception is difficult or even impossible?..
BioNews
Meiosis
The form of cell division by which egg and sperm cells are formed. Unlike normal cell division (mitosis), the number of chromosomes in the resulting cells is half that in the original cells.
50 articles
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts equipment used for embryo biopsy.
Advances in Assisted Reproduction: What Can We Expect?
Sarah Norcross, director of the Progress Educational Trust, invited the audience of the event to consider where assisted reproductive technologies stood 55 years ago...
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.
Functional sperm developed from mouse pluripotent stem cells
Researchers in Japan have successfully demonstrated the development of functional sperm cells that developed into fertile offspring from pluripotent embryonic stem cells, in mice...
BRCA2 DNA repair errors implicated in infertility
BRCA2 mutations may be implicated in infertility, as well as increasing cancer risk, according to new research...
Gene responsible for lack of sperm identified
Gene variants affecting a single gene have been identified in men who do not produce sperm, giving some insight into genetic control of sperm production...
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).
Mouse eggs made from mouse stem cells matured in vitro
An in vitro gametogenesis (IVG) breakthrough has been achieved as mouse stem cells have been used to create egg cells that have successfully developed into live mice when used in IVF...
Ethics of genetically reconstituting oocytes
In the 16 December issue of Nature, researchers reported that the addition of eight transcription factors to pluripotent stem cells converted them into a primary oocyte-like cell...
Human egg cells are often genetically abnormal
Meiosis, when cells divide to produce eggs, goes wrong much more than previously thought...
Heat stress damages DNA in sperm
Even a small increase in temperature during sperm production can amplify DNA damage, new research suggests...
Gene mutations discovered as a trigger for male infertility
Mutations in the M1AP gene have been identified by researchers as a major trigger for male infertility...