According to a feature from Bloomberg’s latest issue, titled “Warren Buffett’s Family Secretly Funded a Birth Control Revolution,” the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation has been quietly providing seed funds for research on lowering the cost of IUDs, along with studies and initatives meant to increase access to and overage usage of the device.
Tag: research
Team Identifies Gene Responsible for Some Cases of Male Infertility
In the most severe form of male infertility, men do not make any measurable levels of sperm. This condition, called azoospermia, affects approximately 1 percent of the male population and is responsible for about a sixth of cases of male infertility.
Oftentimes men with azoospermia don’t know the underlying cause of their condition. But new research led by University of Pennsylvania scientists suggests that mutations in an X chromosome gene called TEX11 are responsible for a significant number of cases of infertility—an estimated 1 percent of cases of non-obstructive azoospermia.
Lawmakers Move To Ban Funding For Human Embryo Editing
On June 17, the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee released a bill that outlines the funding for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for 2016. But the bill has an unusual caveat: if it passes as it currently stands, it would bar the agency from spending any money to assess research or clinical applications for products that manipulate the human genome. It would also require the agency to set up a committee to review a forthcoming report that considers the ethics of editing human embryos.
Study Says This Type of Guy Has the Healthiest Sperm
The research suggests that intelligence and humor are biology’s way of attracting a mate. After putting 400 Vietnam War veterans through intense mental tests, the study “found that men who scored high on a battery of intelligence tests boasted high counts of healthy sperm. Whereas, low scorers tended to have fewer and more sickly sperm.”
Caution Greets Claim Human Sperm Grown in Lab
Human sperm cells have been grown in a laboratory in a breakthrough that could lead to a treatment for male infertility, scientists claim. A French firm said it had produced “fully formed” sperm from basic reproduction cells. The research has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, and experts greeted the news with caution. However, if proven, the technique could offer hope to people who cannot have children
Master Orchestrator of the Genome is Discovered
One of developmental biology’s most perplexing questions concerns what signals transform masses of undifferentiated cells into tremendously complex organisms, a process called ontogeny. New research by University at Buffalo scientists, published last week in PLOS ONE, provides evidence that it all begins with a single “master” growth factor receptor that regulates the entire genome.
New Type of Stem Cell May Make Study of Human Embryos Easier
Scientists have found a new type of stem cell, one that can develop into any kind of tissue in the body, that may make research on early embryonic cell states easier — and could lead to new research opportunities for developmental disorders.
Preventing Deformed Limbs: Researchers Find New Link Between Physical Forces and Limb Development
University of Toronto engineers and a pediatric surgeon have joined forces to discover how physical forces like pressure and tension affect the development of limbs in embryos—research that could someday be used to help prevent birth defects.
Why Is The Scientific World Abuzz About An Unpublished Paper? Because It Could Permanently Change Human DNA
Scientists around the world are anticipating the results of a Chinese study that would mark the first time DNA in a human embryo has been modified in a way that would carry into future generations. Although the embryos would be for study only, and not intended for implantation, the research would mark a significant milestone: the first time human DNA had been altered so substantially that it would change the “germ line” — the eggs or sperm of any child produced from the embryo.
Making The Case For Employee-Covered Fertility Treatments
In 2013, Katie Lelito was a graduate student and research assistant at the University of Michigan. She and her husband were ready to start a family, but months of trying brought no success. Tests lead to an infertility diagnosis and one possible solution for conception: in vitro fertilization (IVF).