Question
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Triesman on 12 November 2007 (WA 1–2), Lord Drayson on 19 May 2009 (WA 290) and Baroness Wilcox on 3 October 2011 (WA 114–5), in the light of the end of Professor Mary Herbert's research study, whether the efficiency of somatic cell nuclear transfer in human oocytes has been improved; in what publications any improvements were reported; how soon after the project was originally due to end any advances were publicly reported; and how many human eggs were required for the research.[HL2745]
Answer
Two papers describing findings from the Medical Research Council (MRC) grant to the University of Newcastle, Improving the Efficiency of Human Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT), have been published. Pronuclear transfer in human embryos to prevent transmission of mitochondrial DNA disease: Craven et al, 2010, Nature: 465(7294), and, Egg Sharing for Research: A Successful Outcome for Patients and Researchers: Choudhary et al, 2012, Cell Stem Cell: Volume 10, Issue 3.
The work was also presented at a workshop on SCNT convened in San Francisco by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and the MRC in June 2010. The workshop report was published on the MRC website and discussions are described in the paper Finding the niche for human somatic cell nuclear transfer: Grieshammer et al 2011, Nat. Biotech: 29, The report and the paper outline advances in approaches for SCNT and the Newcastle team's SCNT research together with their closely related work into the use of nuclear transfer to prevent transmission of mitochondrial DNA disease. A journal article detailing further findings on the therapeutic potential and efficiency of SCNT has been submitted for publication.
The number of eggs donated to the project is provided in Choudhary et al (2012).