Discount IVF is world first; WOMEN SNAP UP CHEAP EGG-SHARE SCHEME TREATMENT

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), Jan 8, 2008

Byline: By JANE PICKEN

WOMEN desperate for children have snapped up the chance to get discounted IVF and help medical research on Tyneside.

The Newcastle Fertility Centre, based at the city's Centre for Life, has revealed that over the past few months 15 women have agreed to donate spare eggs to help produce stem cells in return for reduced-cost treatment.

They are the first to take part in the world-first scheme, which medics hope will boost work at the North of England Stem Cell Institute (NESCI).

Known as egg sharing, the scheme ensures women taking part only pay half the cost of their IVF treatment, estimated at around pounds 1,500, in return for half of their eggs collected during the process.

Since the scheme was licensed and launched, 100 women volunteered and, after testing and counselling, 15 were found to be suitable and six begin treatment this month.

Professor Alison Murdoch, who is leading the project, said: "We are delighted at the excellent response from women in the North East to this important research.

"We hope that significant progress will be made in the research and that it will also help many couples to have a family from IVF treatment."

Scientists at NESCI believe more eggs will help them to develop stem cell therapies for illnesses such as diabetes and Parkinson's disease.

The project will continue for the next two years, and medics are asking women who are about to undergo IVF and are aged 21-35 to volunteer.

Researchers at the Centre for Life were given the go-ahead for the scheme in 2006 by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority.

The eggs will be used in a field of stem cell research known as nuclear re-programming, or therapeutic cloning, with the aim of deriving human embryonic stem cells.

Cells derived from these embryonic stem cells may in the future be used in treatment without being rejected by the patient's immune system.

The research project is strictly regulated and poses no physical risk to the women having IVF treatment.

Newcastle University's Dr Mary Herbert, who is leading the study's scientific team, said: "This major step forward will enable us to make real progress towards our goal of improving the efficiency of therapeutic cloning in humans.

"The availability of freshly harvested human eggs will also enable us to directly address a number of important questions related to the underlying causes of infertility and birth defects, which were previously difficult to study."

To find out more about egg sharing, call (0191) 282 5000 or download more information at www.nesci.ac.uk

CAPTION(S):

LEADING THE WAY: Professor Alison Murdoch