Embryology

We welcome you to a selection of talks from the live symposium titled, The First Seven Days: From Gametes to Blastocyst and Stem Cell.The live program addressed what is perhaps the most dramatically advancing and promising scientific endeavor of the day, namely the developmental biology, genetics and technology of gametes, embryos and embryonic stem cells. Thank you for participating in this self-study course.

Description of Dr. Handyside's presentation: Recently, whole genome amplification has been achieved from small quantities of genomic DNA by isothermal multiple displacement amplification (MDA) with bacteriophage f29 DNA polymerase and exonuclease resistant random hexamer primers. MDA performed on single and small numbers of lymphocytes and blastomeres isolated from cleavage stage embryos, yields microgram quantities of amplified DNA which is highly representative of the genotype of the sampled cell(s). The use of MDA as a universal first step marks a new era for PGD.