The search for DGM 2598 Nov 23, 2008
" said Wendy Kramer. She is cofounder of the Donor Sibling Registry, an online entity that has helped at least 5,900 donor-conceived people connect with half siblings or with the donors themselves by matching a donor's sperm bank ID number or other information.The issue will soon be fought out in a Canadian court. On Oct. 24, Olivia Pratten, the 26-year-old daughter of an anonymous sperm donor, filed that country's first class-action lawsuit on behalf of donor-conceived offspring. The suit asks... (Boston Globe)
California couples can give embryos to science Oct 13, 2008
People who used donor eggs or donor sperm to create their embryos must obtain the consent of those donors before embryos can be released to researchers - something that may be impossible if the gametes (eggs or sperm) were donated long ago, especially if anonymous donors were used ... Protecting gamete donors' rights is critical, says Nanette Elster, director of the Health Law Institute at DePaul University College of Law in Chicago. (San Francisco Chronicle -- Science)
Adoption no panacea for leftover IVF embryos Oct 13, 2008
Federal health law requires that gamete donors undergo blood tests for potentially communicable diseases before the donation. Wolfe's egg and sperm donors completed those safety requirements. (San Francisco Chronicle -- Science)
Childless couples denied as anonymity loss Jun 27, 2008
Pip Morris, of the National Gamete Donation Trust, said: We ve never had enough donors ... Pip Morris cites a lack of awareness for the fall in gamete donor numbers ... Those most directly affected by gamete donation are the children. (Times Online)
First Sex Chromosome Gene Involved In Meiosis And Male Infertility Identified Mar 20, 2008
Meiosis is the process of cell division that produces gametes in both sexes ... Meiosis allows the exchange of genetic material between paternal and maternal genomes to produce genetically diverse gametes (sperm or eggs) ... The team genetically engineered male mice such that they lacked TEX11 function and found that this caused chromosomal asynapsis during the process of gamete formation. (Science Daily)
Inherited Individual Variations Influence Patterns Of Gene Shuffling Feb 5, 2008
Chromosomes from the mother (not including the X chromosome) averaged around 40 recombination events per gamete. Those from the father had only 26. (Science Daily)
Controlling Malaria Through Better Knowledge Of Genetics Of Plasmodium Populations Nov 9, 2007
They then migrate into its digestive tube where they give rise to male and female gametes ... (3) Self-fertilization, or selfing, results from the fusion of a female gamete and a male gamete originating from one and the same parasite genotype and therefore from the same individual. (Science Daily)
How to get a little extra on the side Aug 11, 2007
Babies Sperm donation is something that most hard-up male students consider at some point during university - but sadly, "the days of getting paid 15 for a wank are over", according to an admirably frank spokeswoman at the National Gamete Donation Trust. Donations are now exactly that: a free donation. (Guardian Unlimited)
PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE Jun 25, 2007
" If you work for temporary agencies, any sort of service industry, construction, or the media (old and new), start practicing. FICO -- A snappy little word that will come to dominate every aspect of your life. It will be the source of constant humiliation or constant joy. Check it early, check it often. Juvederm -- This one's mostly for the female graduates. It's unfortunate that despite the wonderful things we would rather believe about our fellow human beings and ourselves -- the kinds of... (San Francisco Chronicle -- Opinion)
New clinic puts women's eggs on layaway May 18, 2007
The clinic claims to be the first in Canada to provide long-term gamete storage to young men and women who are fertile but not ready to be parents - a business plan that has already seen success in the United States and Britain. But the relationship between private practitioners and new medical technologies such as egg freezing raises important ethical concerns, says Arthur Schafer, director of the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba. (Globe and Mail)
Men still donating sperm May 5, 2007
A spokeswoman for the National Gamete Donation Trust (NGDT) said that part of the reason for the decline was the decision by many clinics to stop recruitment amid uncertainty over the future of the system while the changes were being discussed. HFEA chair Shirley Harrison said: "Many commentators continue to claim that the change in the law to remove anonymity for sperm and egg donors would lead to an immediate and steep fall in the number of donors. "These new figures show that the predicted... (Manchester Evening News)
UK sperm donor numbers rise May 4, 2007
The British Fertility Society (BFS) , the National Gamete Donation Trust (NGDT) and other organisations have been looking at ways to improve the numbers of sperm donors recruited in the UK.. Ms Harrison said: "These figures show that these efforts have been paying off.". (BBC News -- Health)
Number of sperm donors rises despite the loss of anonymity May 4, 2007
A spokeswoman for the National Gamete Donation Trust (NGDT) said that part of the reason for the decline was the decision by many clinics to stop recruitment amid uncertainty over the future of the system while the changes were being discussed. The new statistics were published three months after the anonymity rules were extended to include overseas sperm donors, to whom British clinics had turned for supplies. (Independent)
Internet sperm agencies plan to sidestep new rules Apr 30, 2007
Loophole for non-frozen gametes to be closed We won't change, says boss of unlicensed firm ... Shortly afterwards, a single white female opened her door to a courier and took the package, which - if the origin of the gametes is anything to go by - could eventually lead to the birth of someone who enjoys golf and scuba diving ... Laura Witjens, chair of the National Gamete Donation Trust, claims that internet fresh sperm companies are "preying on the vulnerable" and should be banned. (Guardian Unlimited -- UK)
our special feature Apr 24, 2007
It is an organism that is in a different biological category that mere tissue, gamete or somatic cell. Discrimination against these youngest members of our human community based on what she or he looks like, their ability to reproduce asexually (what some call 'twinning'), level of cell differentiation, etc. (The Scientist)
Mother donates eggs to infertile daughter Apr 18, 2007
In this case its a gamete, Ms. Boivin said yesterday ... When it comes to donor gametes, it is irrelevant who donates the eggs, Mr. Sumner said. (National Post)
Early-stage sperm cells created from bone marrow: study Apr 16, 2007
The research, published in the journal Reproduction: Gamete Biology, could one day help in fertility treatment for men, Nayernia contends. And if female bone marrow is also able to produce sperm cells, it raises the possibility that women would be able to pass on their genetic material through manufactured sperm. (CBC.ca)
German Researchers Make Stem Cells into Proto-Sperm Apr 16, 2007
The research was published yesterday, Friday, April 13th, in the academic journal 'Reproduction: Gamete Biology. The team, led by Dr. Karim Nayernia at the University of Gottingenin Germany, reported they extracted the bone marrow stem cells from four adult men who were about to undergo bone marrow transplants, a common treatment for cancer. (Playfuls.com)
Researchers turn stem cells into sperm Apr 15, 2007
The research published in the Reproduction: Gamete Biology was carried out by a team of scientists led by Professor Karim Nayernia when he was at the University of Gottingen, Medical News Today reported. The findings will help researchers understand more about how sperm cells are created, the report said. (Monsters and Critics.com)
Scientists create synthetic sperm cells Apr 14, 2007
Writing in the journal Reproduction: Gamete Biology, Nayernia and colleagues said they searched out stem cells that most closely resembled germ cells the cells found in the testes of men and ovaries of women that eventually give rise to sperm and eggs. Here we show that a small population of bone marrow cells is able to transdifferentiate to male germ cell-like cells, Nayernias team wrote. (MSNBC -- Health)
Human Sperm Could One Day Be Made From Bone Marrow Apr 14, 2007
Reproduction: Gamete Biology ... The study is being published in the journal Reproduction: Gamete Biology ... Sperms and eggs are known as gametes, because they only have 23 chromosomes, whereas the fertilized egg is a zygote, because it is a viable future organism with all its requisite chromosomes present and correct. (Medical News Today)
Sperm made from bone marrow Apr 13, 2007
The findings were presented at an international fertility conference and are published in Gamete Biology: Emerging Frontiers on Fertility and Contraceptive Development. VIDEO AND AUDIO NEWS. (BBC News -- Science)
The prospect of all-female conception Apr 13, 2007
The latest findings, published in the journal Reproduction: Gamete Biology, show that male bone marrow can be used to make the early "spermatagonial" stem cells that normally mature into fully developed sperm cells ... A White Paper on genetics suggested that artificial gametes produced from the ordinary "somatic" tissue of the body may be banned from being used to fertilise human eggs by in vitro fertilisation. (Independent)
Scientists in sperm cell breakthrough Apr 13, 2007
ttingen, Germany, is published in the journal Reproduction: Gamete Biology. The research with mice sperm produced from stem cells, though, shows how much the technique would need to be refined before it could be applied to humans. (Guardian Unlimited)
Infertile men could become fathers Apr 13, 2007
Scientists have taken an important step towards creating artificial sperm that will allow infertile men to father their own genetic children. Primitive human sperm created from bone marrow tissue provided by male volunteers offer new evidence that it should be possible to grow working reproductive cells for men who make none of their own. (Times Online)
Women to self-create Apr 13, 2007
The research published in the journal Reproduction: Gamete Biology could also provide a valuable insight into male infertility, a condition traditionally hard to study. For instance, it could lead to a 'miracle pill' to boost fertility. (Daily Telegraph)
Manipulating Nature: Scientists Query Wildlife Birth-control Method Feb 13, 2007
Professor Cooper also raises concerns that individuals that survive the vaccine may be more likely to carry infectious diseases with the potential to affect other animals. An immuno-contraceptive vaccine causes an animal's immune system to produce antibodies that act against some essential event or structure in the reproductive process. (Science Daily)
Young Single Men Are More Likely To Bank Sperm Before Testicular Cancer Treatment Jan 10, 2007
A quarter of men with testicular cancer banked their sperm before treatment, but only six per cent of those actually used the sperm to father a child, according to a study published in the January issue of the urology journal BJU International. Researchers from the Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in Nashville, USA, surveyed 129 males treated at the institution over a ten-year period. (Science Daily)
Who's your daddy? Jan 7, 2007
In 2003, at least 15,000 in vitro fertilization procedures — in which the gametes, a woman's eggs and a man's sperm, are united in a petri dish and the resulting embryos are transferred into a uterus — were performed with donated eggs; that number grows by 20% annually ... "Let's face it: Donor gametes is an experiment," one fertility doctor aptly put it ... Is gamete donation like adoption. (Fresno Bee -- Opinion)
