Issue 6 | Volume 4 | 2013

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Human embryo gene edit ing has been approved by UK HFEA

Miri® inspired embryologists in an IVF w orkshop held in Ukraine

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Miri® at San Carlos Clinic in Italy

Esco on the move

Upcoming Events6

Human embryo gene edit ing has been approved by UK HFEA Gene editing on Human Embryo to study the development of fertilized eggs has been approved by the UK Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA).

human fert ilizat ion.

The HFEA-approved license applicat ion by Dr. Niakan will use genome-edit ing technique CRISPR?Cas9 in to study a series of genes that mouse studies suggest may be involved even in creat ing the early human embryo. CRISPR?Cas9 allows clipping out each gene of interest and observe the result ing embryo. By t racking which type of cells cont inue to grow and develop, genes that are crit ical to specif ic types of t issues in the early embryo can be determined.

If the research will be able to determine which specif ic genes help the embryo to implant successfully in the uterus and grow to term, infert ility could be t reated. This would not necessarily mean that women would have to undergo CRISPR t reatment , but this knowledge could lead to developing drugs that may either enhance or reduce the effects of certain genes.

Dr. Kathy Niakan, a stem cell scient ist at Francis Crick Inst itute in London, and her team wants to look at embryo development f rom a single cell to about 250 cells. The research aims to f ind the genes at play in the early days of

The license applicat ion permits her team to study embryos for 14 days for research purposes only and does not permit them to implant these in women.

CRISPR/Cas9 is a gene-edit ing technique that can target and modify DNA with groundbreaking accuracy.

Clustered regularly-interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) was f irst discovered in the DNA of bacteria in 1987 by Scient ist in Japan. In their at tempt to study a part icular protein-encoding gene in E.coli, the researchers not iced a pat tern of short , repeat ing, palindromic DNA sequences separated but short , non-repeat ing, ?spacer? DNA sequences. In 2012, scient ists coined the term CRISPR, short for ?clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats?, which describes the pat tern.

Cas9 is a nuclease, an enzyme specialized for cut t ing DNA. In 2012, a group of scient ists combined t racrRNA and spacer RNA into a " single-guide RNA" molecule that , mixed with Cas9, could f ind and cut the correct DNA targets. The group have created a new gene-edit ing tool, the CRISPR-Cas9 system which involve CRISPR, Cas9, and hybrid RNA that could be programmed to ident ify, cut , and even replace any gene sequence.

Over the years, researchers were able to explore many dif ferent applicat ions of CRISPR/Cas9 including genet ically modifying crops, eradicat ing viruses, screening for cancer genes, and ? the recent and the most debatable ? genome engineering.

The CRISPR/Cas9 system was f irst used in genome engineering with the cont roversial Protein & Cell paper f rom the researchers at Sun-Yatsen University in Guangdong, China. And recent ly, the use of this system has been approved by UK HFEA for the applicat ion of Dr. Kathy Niakan which permits her team to use study the earliest stage of embryo development , with def ined limitat ions.

Further studies of the capabilit ies of this technology can lead to the eradicat ion of hereditary diseases such as cyst ic f ibrosis, sickle-cell anemia, and Hunt ington?s disease f rom a family line altogether.

However, experts are concerned about CRISPR/Cas9 in human germ cells because there are st ill too many unknowns. Other scient ists, however, believe that weighing the safety and eff icacy of this technique in human germ cells is now. There are also ethical concerns such as how to deal with altering the genet ic material of future generat ions. These also t rigger fears of eugenics and designer babies.

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What is CRISPR/Cas9?

Edit ing Genes w ith CRISPR/Cas9

CRISPR/Cas9An enzyme that cuts

DNA

Guide RNADirects the Cas9 to

the target DNA

Contains a sequence that matches the target DNA

They st ick together and seek out the target DNA

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Located in northern part of Lorestan Province, Khorram Abad city is one of the ancient cit ies of Iran. Shafa hospital, one of the oldest , the biggest and well equipped hospitals in the city and is one of the well know private hospitals in the western part of Iran.

Dr. Fakouri, the manager and owner of the hospital is very well known in the region. The IVF sect ion of this hospital is one of the best centers of its own in Iran. Shafa Hospital, IVF Sect ion has been equipped with Esco Medical products such as Fert ilisafe? IVF Workstat ion, CelCulture® CO2 Incubators, and AVT-1 Ant i Vibrat ion Table.

One of the biggest IVF centers in Iran, completed with Esco equipment

Target DNA

Guide RNA

If the match is complete, the Cas9 then uses molecular scissors to cut

the target DNA

Once cut , the DNA can be disabled or altered

Scient ists can now edit the gene how

they wish

Reference: Cancer Institute

Shafa Hospital - IVF Center with Esco IVF Equipment

Miri® and Fertilisafe? at Amman Hospital, Jordan

Miri® and Fert ilisafe? at Amman Hospital, Jordan

Established in 1993, started with only 2 f loors, Amman Hospital today t reats pat ients coming f rom Jordan and abroad with 95 beds dist ributed in 6 f loors. The hospital specializes in orthopaedic and t rauma, Laparoscopic Surgery, Plast ic and Reconst ruct ive Surgery, Cardiovascular Surgery, Neurosurgery, Colorectal Surgery, Urosurgery, ENT, and Pediat ric Surgery.

Another f ield is being explored and is about to be another specialty of Amman Hospital. An IVF Laboratory was just recent ly established under the charge of Dr. Muen Feddah. Believing in equipping the lab with the state-of -the-art technology, the clinic has chosen Miri® Mult i-room Benchtop Embryo Incubators and Fert iliSafe? IVF Workstat ion.

Learn the latest f rom Esco, meet us at follow ing events

In Vit ro Fert ilizat ion and Embryo TransferJuly 17-20, 2015San Diego, California, USA

Council of Physicians Scient istsMay 4-6, 2016Aust in, Texas

Esco New s is the online publicat ion of Esco Micro for its customers, partners, suppliers and f riends.

Published byEsco Micro Pte. Ltd.21 Changi South St reet 1Singapore 486777

Phone: +65 6542 0833Fax: +65 6542 6920Email: mail@escoglobal.comWebsite: www.escoglobal.com

Editor/Writer/Layout Art istMa. Christ ia Lagamson-Riverachrist ia.l@escoglobal.com

American Associat ion of BioanalystMay 12-14, 2016Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Meet our new family member

Holger Kayser is the newest member of the Esco Medical Team.

He has held several sales management leadership roles in the medical device indust ry during the past 15 years.

He started his career joining Akzo Nobel as Internat ional Key Account Manager establishing dialysis medical device manufacturers for driving sales in Europe, US and parts of Asia.

Holger later joined Gambro, a world-leading provider of dialysis products and became Sales manager in Germany. In this role, he was responsible for a larger group of sales reps selling capital equipment and disposables.

Recent ly, Holger served as General Manager - Assisted Reproduct ion, at Origio based in Berlin, Germany, where he managed a team in Sales, Market ing & Customer Service.

Holger received his formal qualif icat ions in Chemist ry and Biochemist ry f rom Free University of Berlin, Germany and holds a PhD in Biochemist ry.

Holger Kayser

COGI 2016March 21-23, 2016Melbourne Convent ion and Exhibit ion Centre Melbourne, Aust ralia

ASPIRE Congress 2016April 8-10, 2016BalaiSidang Jakarta Convent ion CenterJakarta, Indonesia

SSRM Annual Meet ing 2016April 8-9, 2016Scandic Rubinen, Kungsportsavenyn 24 Gothenburg , Sweden

AGRMB 2016April 22-24, 2016Leogang, Germany

11th Biennial ConferenceMay 5-8, 2016Raddison Blu, Scandinavia HotelCopenhagen, Denmark

ESHRE 2016July 3-9, 2016Messukeskus Expo and Convent ion Centre Helsinki, Finland

The 4th Internat ional Congress of Academy of Clinical EmbryologistsAugust 26-28, 2016Marriot , Japur, India

Reprofacts 2016July 15, 2016Stelgenberger Airport Hotel FrankfurtFrankfurt , Germany

72nd ASRM Scient if ic Congress & Expo October 15-19, 2016Salt Lake City, UT, USA