Reprogenetic News Roundup #13
Reprogenetic News Roundup #13
U.S. IVF access bill; UK embryo research; falling fertility in France, South Korea, Greece & Israel; U.S. National Security & biotech report; embryo adoption
Welcome to the latest issue of the Reprogenetic News Roundup! Highlights from this week’s edition:
Repro/genetics
U.S. legislators propose bill to guarantee right to IVF amidst post-Roe rise of state abortion restrictions.
British scientists call for review of 14-day limit on embryo research
Population policies & trends
Video: “Why Macron wants France to have more babies”
Texas abortion restrictions coincide with rise in Hispanic births
Falling fertility and natalist policies in Israel, South Korean, and Greece
Genetic Studies
Largest ever study on genetics of aging finds 52 variants associated with healthy aging
Massive Japanese genetic study estimates chance of dying from prostate cancer
Further Learning
U.S. National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB) outlines recommendations for biotech policy in “the age of biology”
Risa Cromer’s Conceiving Christian America looks at Christian movements’ promotion of embryo adoption
Repro/genetics
“Amid post-Roe concerns, Democratic lawmakers introduce bill to protect access to IVF” (CNN)
Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation aimed at protecting access to infertility treatments, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), amid growing concern that anti-abortion bills may threaten access in some states.
Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth and Pennsylvania Representative Susan Wild have introduced the Access to Family Building Act, which would make it a statutory right for patients to access assisted reproductive technology (ART) such as IVF, continue treatments, and retain authority over how sperm or egg cells are used during such treatments.
Sen. Duckworth has been outspoken about her own experience using IVF to grow her family.
The new bill could supersede states’ strict abortion laws when it comes to discarding a patient’s embryos during the IVF process or even terminating a pregnancy when a patient is implanted with multiple embryos while using ART.
“You have state legislatures that impose a ban on access to abortion or state legislatures who have decided to, or there are moves to define a human being with personhood rights as a fertilized egg,” Duckworth said. “Well, if that were the case, that would actually prohibit many forms of IVF.”
During Duckworth’s IVF experience, she said, she had five fertilized eggs, but three of them were found to not be viable and were discarded.
To date, there have not been any known legal cases in which a patient’s access to IVF has been overtly threatened or restricted. However, there are growing concerns that such incidents may happen in states with strict abortion laws.
A common example is when lawmakers write in anti-abortion bills that human beings are protected from “the moment of conception,” Sean Tipton of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, because conception is not a “moment” but a process.
It’s estimated that each year around 2.3% of infants born in the U.S. were conceived using ART.
Now that the bill has been introduced in the House and Senate, it will be referred to committee and then the committee decides whether to consider it.
“Scientists call for review of UK’s 14-day rule on embryo research” (Guardian)
Scientists are calling for a review of the UK’s 14-day rule on embryo research, saying that extending the limit could help uncover the causes of recurrent miscarriage and congenital conditions.
Until now, scientists studying the earliest stages of life have been restricted to cultivating embryos up to the equivalent of 14 days of development.
An overhaul of fertility laws in the UK is on the horizon.
Dr Peter Rugg-Gunn, of the Babraham Institute in Cambridge , said: “The period from two weeks to four weeks has been labelled the black box of embryo development. There’s no practical way to study this currently so our knowledge is really limited. Studying embryos beyond the 14-day limit could bring benefits to patients. The sooner it could be allowed, the sooner patients could benefit in the UK.”
The UK’s 14-day rule was first proposed in the 1984 Warnock report on the ethics and regulation of IVF, and has been law since 1990. It was intended to balance the medical benefits of research with the special status of the human embryo.
In 1990, the limit was theoretical because scientists could not maintain embryo development in the lab beyond a few days. In the past five years, this has changed as a growing number of labs around the world are able to closely replicate development right up to the legal limit.
Professor Kathy Niakan, a developmental biologist at the University of Cambridge, said: “There’s an immunological interaction that’s really unique at that time of pregnancy. There’s this really interesting question of why, in some cases, the maternal cells and the fetal cells can’t coexist without some sort of attack or failure.”
It is now more clear than it was in 1990 that an embryo does not have a functional nervous system at 28 days.
“Human embryos … are a scarce and precious resource,” said Sarah Norcross of the charity Progress Educational Trust. “Is it right that scientists are legally obliged to stop studying these embryos in the laboratory after 14 days, when we could learn so much more from them, and when we could use this knowledge to better understand pregnancy loss and disease?”
“Having the discussion doesn’t mean the rule will change,” Niakan said. “It means having an open, two-way dialogue about what could be gained, what the potential risks are and asking how do we feel about that.”
More on repro/genetics:
“Is the export of donor sperm [in the UK] explained adequately to recipients?” (PET)
“Despite bans, disabled women are still being sterilized in Europe” (New York Times)
“Genetic information can improve colorectal cancer screening, shows study” (Medical Xpress)
“Weaponizing trivialities: The engineered ouster of Claudine Gay and its link to eugenics” (CGS)
“Scientist cited in ush to oust Harvard’s Claudine Gay has links to eugenicists” (Guardian)
“Opinion: Trump’s dangerous echoes of the eugenics movement” (CNN)
Population Policies & Trends
More on population policies & trends:
“Texas teen birthrate rose for first time in 15 years after abortion ban, largely affecting Latinas” (NBC)
Hispanic females delivered 84% of all additional babies in Texas from 2021 to 2022, the year a six-week abortion ban took effect.
“South Korea’s child benefits: Increased to 29.6 million won ($22,100) over 8 years starting 2024” (Stop Population Decline)
“Greece’s fertility crisis: PM Mitsotakis enhances child benefits” (Stop Population Decline)
“Israeli population growth slowing as fertility rates continue to fall – report” (Times of Israel)
“United by faith, divided by race: nationalist racism against mixed marriages [among Muslims]” (Muslim Skeptic)
“Boosting fertility by subsidizing child-bearing for *young* women” (Marginal Revolution/Tyler Cowen)
Genetic Studies
“Genetic map makers: study identifies genes involved in healthy aging” (Forbes)
In the biggest ever genetic study of aging, researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have uncovered multiple new genetic regions that influence lifespan and healthy aging.
The study performed a “multivariate” GWAS looking at five variables simultaneously: “healthspan” (the portion of one’s life spent in good health), parental lifespan, extreme longevity, epigenetic aging, and frailty.
The multivariate analysis, dubbed “mvAge,” was based on data gathered from 1.9 million participants from diverse biobanks.
The analysis yielded 52 genetic variants associated with healthy aging, 20 of which had not previously been linked to aging. Many of the variants are known to influence cardiometabolic risk factors, heart and circulatory diseases, and brain health.
The researchers also found that metformin, a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes and sometimes thought to support healthy aging, targets genes associated with positive effects on healthspan, lifespan, and the aging process.
The study, published in Nature, has important therapeutic implications and opens up new avenues for future research.
Almost 60,000 genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been conducted since 2002.
“Massive genetic study estimates the chance of dying from prostate cancer” (Medical Xpress)
Just by looking at a short portion of a man’s genome, it may be possible to estimate the probability that he will die from prostate cancer—even before he has the cancer—according to a massive genetic study by Japanese research institute RAIKEN.
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men globally. It also has the highest heritability among all common, non-skin cancers.
“If we discover differences in variants between people with prostate cancer and healthy people, they should be the causes not the consequences, because those inherited variants should be different between the two groups even before developing the disease,” said Chikashi Terao of the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences.
The study, published in Nature Communications, used data from 300,000 people.
The team focused on sites that bind the male hormone androgen since a preliminary analysis revealed that variants of those sites played a dominant role in prostate cancer. They also assessed the risk of dying from prostate cancer rather than the risk of getting the disease.
The androgen-receptor-binding regions of normal prostate cells are particularly effective in predicting risk of cancer death. “We found about 40% of the heritability of prostate cancer can be traced to the 1% of the genome that codes for the androgen-receptor binding site of the normal prostate,” says Terao.
Unlike many previous studies that focused on people of European origin, the study used data from Japanese people. “This enrichment was observed in both Japanese and Europeans, suggesting that the current findings can be generalized,” notes Terao.
The study findings will help to identify people at high risk early in life, who can then take examinations more frequently throughout their lives.
More on genetic studies:
“Unravelling the molecular mechanisms of skin color diversity in Africans” (Nature Genetics)
“Did the Black Death shape the human genome? Study challenges bold claim” (Nature)
“Study identifies genetic variants in African ancestry linked to glaucoma risk” (HCP Live)
“Genome-wide association identifies novel ROP [a major cause of childhood blindness] risk loci in a multiethnic cohort” (Communications Biology)
“Unraveling the genetic mysteries of tinnitus” (Medriva)
“Relationship between autism and brain cortex surface area: genetic correlation and a two-sample Mendelian randomization study” (BMC Pschiatry)
“We tend to be extroverted or antisocial based on our DNA” (The Conversation Español)
“Navigating Alzheimer’s: Heritability, AI, and hope for the future” (BNN)
“A GWAS of prostate cancer susceptibility using oc
“Increased milk intake associated with a decreased risk of type 2 diabetes in adults who do not produce lactase” (News Medical)
“Genetics impacts thumb osteoarthritis treatment outcome” (Inside Precision Medicine)
“Heritability explained: uncovering the secrets of genetic disease” (CSIRO)
“There are no gay genes” (Christian Daily, Korea)
Further Learning
U.S. national security & biotech commission argues we are entering “the age of biology” (U.S. Congress)
The U.S. Congress created the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology (NSCEB) in December 2021 to study “the opportunities and challenges facing the United States at the intersection of national security and emerging biotechnology.”
NSCEB’s Commissioners are high-level policymakers and (bio)technologists, including Senators, Representatives, and former Google CEO Dr. Eric Schmidt. The Commission is chaired by Dr. Jason Kelly, cofounder of Gingko Bioworks.
NSCEB has published its Interim Report of analysis and policy recommendations on national security and biotech, ahead of a comprehensive report to be published in December 2024.
The report argues that the speed of biotech innovation such as cheap and precise gene editing technique and gene sequencing, combined with the “confluence” of other emerging technologies like AI and big data analytics, means we are entering “the age of biology.”
“As the speed of innovation increases, supercharged by convergence with AI and other technologies, we cannot afford to forget the lessons of semiconductors and 5G while we wait to act. Biotechnology could be more powerful and consequential than these technologies, both to benefit society as well as to cause great harm.”
The authors argue that biotech, already very important in the U.S. in agriculture and medicine, has great further potential in areas such as general competitiveness and innovation, food security, environment, materials and shortening of value chains, energy, health, and biosecurity.
The Commissioners recommend maintaining the U.S. lead in biotech by investing in and enabling innovation, staying ahead of China, collaborating with allies and setting international standards, and harmonizing different U.S. public authorities’ policies affecting biotech.
The report takes a very expansive definition of “national security” as “the security and defense of the United States, encompassing national defense, economic competitiveness (including energy security, food security, and resilience of critical supply chains), and strategic geopolitical influence.”
Review of Risa Cromer’s Conceiving Christian America: Embryo Adoption and Reproductive Politics (CGS)
Risa Cromer’s Conceiving Christian America explores embryo adoption programs within the conservative Christian right, drawing on 27 months of fieldwork at embryo adoption programs and fertility clinics.
With at least 600,000 spare embryos in cold storage as a result of IVF, (White) evangelicals were motivated to establish embryo adoption programs.
Cromer alleges embryo adoption supports the Christian right’s goal of building up a Christian nation through heterosexual, White, Christian nuclear families.
Some embryo adoption programs require or prefer adoptive parents that identify as Christian and are heterosexually married.
Science is revealing why American politics is so polarized (Washington Post)
Political psychologists argue the tendency to form tightly knit groups has roots in evolution. Humans evolved in a challenging world of limited resources in which survival required cooperation and identifying competitors.
“The evolution of cooperation required out-group hatred, which is really sad,” said Nicholas Christakis, a Yale sociologist and author of Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society.
More on evolution and biotech:
“How China’s push to genetically modify more beans could reshape the global agriculture trade” (Australian Strategic Policy Institute)
“USDA: ‘We will need cellular agriculture’ to reach climate, food innovation goals’” (Food Navigator)
New genomic techniques: MEPs want to ban all patents for gene-edited plants (European Parliament)
“How CRISPR could yield the next blockbuster crop” (Nature)
Jennifer Doudna: “Gene editing needs to be for everyone” (Wired)
“Guide to Paranthropus species” (John Hawks)
“Sex differences in the brain and the mind” (Quillette)
“Better tasting, climate-proof coffee: Largest genetic map of Arabica coffee helps researchers grow optimized beans of the future” (Genetic Literacy Project)
Disclaimer: The Genetic Choice Project makes every effort to include only reputable and relevant news, studies, and analysis on reprogenetics. We cannot fact-check the linked-to stories and studies, nor do the views expressed necessarily reflect those of the Genetic Choice Project.