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Three-parent
babies on the way, IVF experts affirm Prof Yash
Pal This Universe Trends |
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Three-parent babies on the way, IVF experts affirm The procedure involves swapping genetic material before the IVF embryo is implanted in the womb to prevent the transmission of some of the most severe inherited disorders. But it would lead to permanent changes in the genetic make-up of children that would be passed on to subsequent generations and breaks new ground in IVF research. Mitochondrial disease — mutations in small structures called mitochondria which surround the cell nucleus — is carried by thousands of women and is passed down the maternal line, leading to the birth of about 100 severely disabled children every year. Some women with the disorder have had up to six children who have died because of the severity of their disabilities. In an open letter to the health secretary signed by the heads of the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust and four other bodies, the scientists said regulations governing use of the gene-switching technique should be drawn up now so it can be introduced without delay once sufficient evidence of its safety and efficacy has been amassed. “Given the importance of such research for couples wishing to have children free of mitochondrial disease, and the speed at which research in the field is developing, researchers and patients now need assurance that such techniques will move into the clinic. We consider it essential that UK patients should benefit from treatments resulting from research conducted here,” the scientists led by Professor Sir John Bell, president of the Academy of Medical Sciences, say. Mr Lansley ordered a review of the science of the technique, carried out by a panel appointed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which concluded that though there was nothing to suggest it was unsafe, further research was necessary. The mitochondria are the power packs of the cell, contained in the cytoplasm that surrounds the nucleus, which provide it with energy. They carry very small amounts of genetic material, mutations in which lead to potentially fatal problems such as organ failure and symptoms including blindness. Women may be carriers of the inherited disorder without being affected themselves and some, or all, of their children may be affected. To avoid it, the nucleus of the woman’s egg or embryo, containing more than 99 per cent of her genes, is removed, leaving the affected mitochondria in the cytoplasm surrounding it behind, and placed in a donated egg or embryo with unaffected mitochondria, whose own nucleus has been removed. The resulting child has more than 99 per cent of the genes belonging to its father and mother and less than 1 per cent from the donor. The scientific review of the technique, co-chaired by Robin Lovell-Badge of the Medical Research Council, says further work is needed into the two methods of switching the nucleus — the maternal spindle transfer, conducted before fertilisation, and the pronuclear transfer, conducted after fertilisation — to check offspring born to rhesus monkeys are unaffected and that human eggs and embryos similarly treated grow normally in the laboratory. Dr Lovell-Badge said: “Some people seem to be taking our report as negative and hesitant. It is not meant to be at all. We just need a little bit more information. In my view it won’t take very long — a year and a few months. We don’t know which of the two techniques is best.” Ethical and legal reviews still had to be conducted — one method involved the destruction of fertilised embryos — alongside the preparation of new regulations but these should happen in parallel with the extra scientific research so measures were in place to treat the first patients as soon as the technique was approved, he said. As Ruth Safak, whose 20-year-old son, Deniz, is confined to a wheelchair, says: “I think the research into three-parent IVF to prevent mitochondrial disorders is fantastic and nothing should stand in its way.”
— The Independent
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This Universe Why
does the earth have a weak magnetic field? What will happen when earth has a strong magnetic field? Will the earth stop revolving around sun and move in an other direction? Is earth revolving around sun due to its magnetic field? It is believed that magnetic field of the earth and other planets arise because of the following reasons. Somehow the interior of the earth must become so hot that the material inside, including metals, become liquid and the melted material undergoes convection, transferring the internal heat to the surface from where it can be radiated away. Heating of the interior of the planet is primarily due to gravitational contraction due its formation, but is also maintained through decay of radioactive elements. If the planet is rotating fast enough the rotating conducting material undergoing convection would produce electric currents that will produce a magnetic field. The direction of this magnetic field would be generally related to the direction of rotation of the planet. This might be the reason that for our earth the magnetic field is roughly similar to what would be produced by a hypothetical bar magnet aligned in the north south direction. The thing to remember is that planet rotation is the primary cause of the magnetic field, including its direction. The earth is revolving around the sun not because of its magnetic field. Indeed, the rotation of the earth produces its magnetic field. This is also true for the sun. Its magnetic field is also connected with its rotation. There is evidence that the earth magnetic field has reversed several times. It seems to have happened, randomly at intervals of a few million years. It seems that polarity of the field is reversed, but not its general alignment with the axis of rotation of the earth. It has been suggested that the cause for this might have been a change in momentum of inertia of the planet due to shift of masses, for example the oceans, due to major climate changes, which might have affected the co-rotation of the mantel of the earth and the convecting hot core inside. Such changes of magnetic field might have occurred over long periods of time, with consequent changes in the tectonic and other structure of the earth surface. Some of your other conjectures have no physical basis.
Readers wanting to ask Prof Yash Pal a question can e-mail him at palyash.pal@gmail.com
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Trends CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: Pioneering science and celebrity attention will give added lift on Friday to US space shuttle Endeavour’s final launch, in which the shuttle commander and his convalescent congresswoman wife will be in the spotlight. President Barack Obama and his family will be at the Kennedy Space Center to watch Endeavour blast off at 3:47 p.m. EDT (2047 GMT) in what will be the second-to-last flight of space agency NASA’s 30-year shuttle program, which is being phased out this year.
Scientists hope to illuminate universe’s dark side CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: Everything scientists now know about the cosmos, from the Big Bang to black holes, has come from measurements of light rays. But Mother Nature speaks in particles too, and until now their instruments have been largely deaf to her second tongue.
Scientists oppose European stem cell patent ban LONDON: Research scientists hit out on Wednesday at a European Court of Justice (ECJ) case they say could block development of embryonic stem cell-based therapies in Europe. The ECJ’s advocate general has said all patents on embryonic stem cell-related technologies should be banned on moral grounds, but in a letter in the journal Nature and during a briefing in London, leading stem cell scientists said that could spell disaster for drug firms seeking treatments for conditions such as blindness and spinal chord injuries.
Diabetic completes first-ever polar flight of its kind ANCHORAGE, Alaska:
Former British Royal Air Force pilot Douglas Cairns succeeded in flying his light plane to the North Pole and landing it there this week, overcoming strong headwinds, the failure of his satellite-based navigation system and his diabetes to earn a place in aviation record books. “It was rather surreal and very exhilarating to be at the crown of our Planet Earth with 24 hours of daylight,” he said.
— Reuters
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