Infertility remains a devastating disease for many couples, despite the success of IVF, as treatment is often unsuccessful, or remains out-of-reach for both health and/or financial reasons. My fellowship aims to improve our understanding of some of the causes of infertility in women. This will translate to a new infertility treatment that is safer for their health and provides for improved long-term health outcomes for their children.
Identification Of Factors Essential For Oocyte Viability
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$220,500.00
Summary
Approximately 2% Australia children are now conceived using in vitro fertilisation technologies, allowing infertile couples to bear their own children. However, a major consequence of IVF techniques is multiple pregnancies (i.e. twins and triplets) which is a major health risk to mothers and their infants. Furthemore, IVF increases birth defects, which are mostly attributed to the increased multiple pregnancies, but is also observed in pregnancies involving a single infant. It is essential that ....Approximately 2% Australia children are now conceived using in vitro fertilisation technologies, allowing infertile couples to bear their own children. However, a major consequence of IVF techniques is multiple pregnancies (i.e. twins and triplets) which is a major health risk to mothers and their infants. Furthemore, IVF increases birth defects, which are mostly attributed to the increased multiple pregnancies, but is also observed in pregnancies involving a single infant. It is essential that IVF techniques are developed that enables the transfer of a single embryo to the mother resulting in the birth of a single healthy baby, without the ethical concerns of surplus embryo disposal. Women receiving IVF are required to adminster hormones that stimulate the eggs in their ovaries to mature to the point where they can be fertilised by their partner's sperm. These hormones, called gonadotrophins, override the body's own ovarian stimulating system and cause many eggs to mature and be collected for fertilisation, instead of normally just one. In this way, the best embryo(s) can be selected for transfer back to the mother, and other embryos can be frozen and stored for later use. However, large doses of gonadotrophins has consequences. They can be dangerous to some patients who are sensitive to their potency, and stimulate a massive response. They also reduce the quality of eggs and subsequent embryos, which reduces the chances of a pregnancy. All this can be avoided if eggs can be collected from ovaries in an immature state and maturation achieved in the laboratory. However, although attempted, this has not been a successful technique, primarily because we don't understand the process of human egg maturation. Our research will investigate the biochemistry, physiology and genetics of non-human eggs and embryos resulting from eggs that are grown and matured in the laboratory, to develop techniques for the successful maturation of human eggs in the laboratory.Read moreRead less
Development Of Engineered Novel Growth Factors For Infertility Treatment
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$410,439.00
Summary
Infertility comes at an enormous social and financial cost to Australian society. The aim of this proposal is to improve the success rate of an innovative technology that matures eggs in the laboratory and so eliminates the need for the hormones normally used in IVF. To achieve this a newly discovered egg-secreted protein first has to be produced in the laboratory.
Characterisation Of Cumulus Cell Molecular Mediators Of Oocyte Health
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$451,896.00
Summary
Many women are poorly fertile because of poor egg quality due to age, disease and lifestyle. IVF can assist, but requires large doses of hormone, which can lead to significant health risks. IVM is an alternative lab technique to IVF, but has very poor success. We discovered that synthetic proteins copied from recently discovered egg proteins can be added to the egg and substantially increase IVM success. Answering why will further will aid treatment for infertile women
Re-energising The Preimplantation Embryo To Extend Lifetime Health
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$1,156,936.00
Summary
Diseases of aging are associated with shortening at the ends of chromosomes called telomeres. The length of an individual’s telomeres is established during embryo development, and in situations where embryo development is compromised such as with maternal obesity the normal process of telomere lengthening may not occur. We will determine how such disruptions in embryo telomere lengthening contribute to poor health in adulthood and test ways to restore the natural process.
Advancing maternal age is associated with the progressive loss of fertility, increased miscarriage and a greater risk of bearing children with birth defects. These adverse reproductive outcomes result, in part, from the loss of egg quality with age. We aim to identify and characterise genes involved in the age-related decline in egg quality. The long-term goal of this research is to develop novel strategies to improve fertility outcomes for women who chose to delay pregnancy until later in life.
Optimising Female Fertility: Controlling Ovulation And Promoting Embryo Developmental Potential
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$459,270.00
Summary
A good quality egg at the right time is required to make a healthy embryo, influencing its lifetime health trajectory. My research aims to determine how the female ovary produces a good quality egg and releases it at the right time. This is essential for improving reproductive health in women and will identify how maternal health influences egg quality and the earliest stages of embryo growth, providing the healthiest start to life.
Female Reproductive Health Preservation By Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide (NAD+) And Sirtuin2 (SIRT2)
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$410,983.00
Summary
Cancer treatment can be severely toxic to women’s eggs. Increasing numbers of women who survive cancer therefore become infertile and prematurely deprived of hormonal support whilst still in their reproductive years. This project will use state-of-the-art techniques to interrogate newly uncovered pathways that can protect eggs from treatment-induced injury thereby greatly improving the quality of life for female cancer survivors.