My twin sons were conceived with the use of an anonymous egg donor because I was diagnosed as infertile. Meaning, my husband and I chose a woman who sorta looks like me, her eggs were retrieved and combined with my husband’s sperm, and the matured embryos were transferred into my uterus.
Tag: DNA
Scientists Debate Boundaries, Ethics of Human Gene Editing
Rewriting your DNA is getting closer to reality: A revolutionary technology is opening new frontiers for genetic engineering – a promise of cures for intractable diseases along with anxiety about designer babies.
Mutations That Cause Infertility Detected Through New Genotyping Strategy
Cornell researchers have developed an experimental strategy to identify infertility-causing mutations found in human populations. These mutations are known as single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, and are the most common type of genetic variation among people. Each SNP represents a difference in a single DNA building block, called a nucleotide.
Scientists Could One Day Create Genetically Modified ‘Designer Babies’ — But Should They?
This week, the Congressional Research and Technology Subcommittee held its first hearing on the science and ethics of genetically modifying human DNA. The main topic up for discussion was CRISPR, the world’s most promising and widely applicable gene-editing technique. So far, CRISPR (pronounced crisper) has been used by multiple labs around the world to modify the genes of organisms as varied as bacteria, plants, mice and some primates. But what lawmakers wanted to talk about with scientists this week is what it will mean when we start making genetic improvements to human beings.
Designer Babies Make Great Hollywood and Bad Science
Two years ago, scientists quietly developed a technique known as CRISPR/Cas, which allowed them to edit DNA more cheaply, more quickly, and more precisely than ever before. At the time, few people were paying attention.
DNA Editing Takes a Serious Step Forward — For Better or Worse
It’s a scenario that has haunted biologists since the dawn of the DNA age: the evil scientist custom-crafting a human being with test tubes and Petri dishes. So when a Chinese team revealed last month that it had used a new laboratory technique to alter a gene in human embryos, it set off an urgent debate over the ethics — and wisdom — of tinkering with the most basic building blocks of life.
Why Is The Scientific World Abuzz About An Unpublished Paper? Because It Could Permanently Change Human DNA
Scientists around the world are anticipating the results of a Chinese study that would mark the first time DNA in a human embryo has been modified in a way that would carry into future generations. Although the embryos would be for study only, and not intended for implantation, the research would mark a significant milestone: the first time human DNA had been altered so substantially that it would change the “germ line” — the eggs or sperm of any child produced from the embryo.
Retroviruses: Human Embryos May Be Affected By Ancient Viral Invaders
Viruses that invaded the DNA of humanity’s ancestors millions of years ago may now play critical roles in the earliest stages of human development, researchers say.
U.K. Parliament Approves Controversial Three-Parent Mitochondrial Gene Therapy
The United Kingdom’s House of Commons voted overwhelmingly today to allow British researchers to pursue a new fertility treatment that could prevent certain kinds of genetic diseases. The technique, called mitochondrial DNA replacement therapy, could allow women who carry disease-causing mutations in their mitochondrial genes to give birth to genetically related children free of mitochondrial disease.
Why Have More Men Chosen to Freeze Their Sperm?
Facebook and Apple recently announced they would cover the $10,000 cost for egg harvesting and freezing for any female employees who wish to delay child-bearing for years or decades, but the cheaper perk of sperm banking isn’t offered to male workers who want to put off fatherhood. Reproductive health specialists have debated whether young men really benefit from freezing youthful sperm to use later on, but some men have decided to shell out the money after hearing about research suggesting that sperm from a 40-year-old man could have DNA defects.