'Egg sharing' go-ahead for stem cell researchers
Stem cell researchers have been given permission to recruit human egg donors for stem cell research using an existing clinical practice known as egg sharing.
Under the egg sharing scheme, the research team would contribute to the cost of a patient’s IVF treatment in return for the donation of some of her eggs. The material would be used in a field of stem cell research known as nuclear transfer, or therapeutic cloning.
The team, from the North East England Stem Cell Institute (NESCI)*, of which Newcastle University is a part, anticipates the move will lead to an increase in the number of eggs for research. This would allow faster progress to be made towards stem cell therapies for conditions such as diabetes, Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease.
The NESCI team is the first in the UK to be offered permission to operate egg sharing for research purposes by the regulatory body the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). The team’s local ethics committee has already granted permission.
However, it will be at least 12 months before the scheme is in operation as the research team now needs funding to make it work. It needed to have the regulatory agreement in place before applications could be made for financial backing.
The HFEA offer represents a variation of an existing licence awarded in 2004 to Alison Murdoch, Professor of Reproductive Medicine at Newcastle and director of the Newcastle NHS Fertility Centre at LIFE. This permitted researchers to use, with patient consent, ‘failed to fertilise’ eggs from patients having IVF treatment and women undergoing follicle reduction for fertility treatment.
One of these eggs was used to successfully create a human blastocyst after nuclear transfer, an early-stage cloned human embryo, now recognised as a world-first and reported in a scientific journal in 2005. However, this represented just a small step forward in a long journey towards developing stem cell therapies that could be used in patients.
Professor Murdoch (pictured) said: “We are extremely pleased with the HFEA’s decision, which is a step forward for stem cell research and medicine generally.
"Like all UK research, it will be strictly regulated at a local and national level by ethics committees and the principals of research governance."
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* The North East England Stem Cell Institute (NESCI) draws together Durham and Newcastle Universities, the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and other partners in a unique interdisciplinary collaboration to convert stem cell research and technologies into cost-effective, ethically-robust 21st century health solutions to ameliorate degenerative diseases, the effects of ageing and serious injury. The Institute has received substantial funding and other support from the regional development agency, One NorthEast.
published on: 27th July 2006