in vitro fertilization (IVF)

Eggs from excessively overweight mothers suffer mitochondrial damage that can be averted with pharmacological intervention, a mouse study finds. 

Parliament today voted to allow techniques that could help couples produce babies with a reduced chance of passing on heritable mitochondrial diseases.

Mouse offspring conceived by in vitro fertilization are metabolically different from naturally conceived mice.

A woman in Sweden gives birth to a healthy baby boy after carrying the child in a transplanted uterus for 32 weeks.

The U.K.’s human embryo research agency says that a new mitochondrial replacement technique is safe and could be approved soon, paving the way for three-parent IVF.

The agency is soliciting opinions on a new technology that has the potential to circumvent mitochondrial diseases by producing embryos using DNA from three people.

Male mice lacking seminal vesicles father fewer offspring, and their sons suffer from abnormal metabolism into adulthood.

The US regulatory agency will meet next week to discuss whether to allow human trials of a technique that combines the genetic information of three adults.

Avoiding the transmission of mitochondrial disease takes a trio, but raises a host of logistical issues.

A baby has been born using in vitro fertilization aided by next-generation sequencing of embryos for genetic abnormalities.

The United Kingdom is drawing up draft guidelines for mitochondrial transfer procedures to prevent mothers passing on diseases to their children.
 

Sir Robert Edwards, whose research led to the birth of the first test tube baby, has died at age 87.

Developing assisted reproductive technologies may help endangered canids.

New noninvasive methods of selecting the most viable embryo could revolutionize in vitro fertilization.

Meet some of the people featured in the November 2012 issue of The Scientist.

From basic research to beneficial therapies

A United Kingdom ethics council approves altering human egg cells, which could allow doctors to correct mitochondrial disease in IVF patients.

Mammalian embryos may be able to undergo a developmental pause before implanting in the womb.

Pierre Comizzoli, a reproductive physiologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, chats about his efforts to rescue endangered species from extinction using in vitro fertilization as well as novel gamete preservation techniques.

A National Zoo researcher works to perfect gamete preservation and in vitro fertilization techniques in order to better manage endangered populations.