Scientists attach barcodes to mouse embryos

[The Straight Story]

Fans of the film Blade Runner may remember a scene in which the maker of an artificial snake is identified by a microscopic serial number on one of its scales. Well, in a rare case of present-day technology actually surpassing that predicted in a movie, we’ve now gone one better – bar codes on embryos. Scientists from Spain’s Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), along with colleagues from the Spanish National Research Council, have successfully developed an identification system in which mouse embryos and oocytes (egg cells) are physically tagged with microscopic silicon bar code labels. They expect to try it out on human embryos and oocytes soon.

http://www.gizmag.com/barcodes-on-embryos/17017/picture/124845/

A novel embryo identification system by direct tagging of mouse embryos using silicon-based barcodes

BACKGROUND Measures to prevent assisted reproductive technologies (ART) mix-ups, such as labeling of all labware and double-witnessing protocols, are currently in place in fertility clinics worldwide. Technological solutions for electronic witnessing are also being developed. However, none of these solutions eliminate the risk of identification errors, because gametes and embryos must be transferred between containers several times during an ART cycle. Thus, the objective of this study was to provide a proof of concept for a direct embryo labeling system using silicon-based barcodes.

METHODS Three different types of silicon-based barcodes (A, B and C) were designed and manufactured, and microinjected into the perivitelline space of mouse pronuclear embryos (one to four barcodes per embryo). Embryos were cultured in vitro until the blastocyst stage, and rates of embryo development, retention of the barcodes in the perivitelline space and embryo identification were assessed every 24 h. Release of the barcodes after embryo hatching was also determined. Finally, embryos microinjected with barcodes were frozen and thawed at the 2-cell stage to test the validity of the system after cryopreservation.

http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2010/11/17/humrep.deq309.abstract

[Swede]

1. I've seen things you people wouldn't believe..........

[RandomThoughts]

3. Tears in the rain, just tears in the rain...

"I watched sea beams glitter in the dark off ten houses of gate."
There is a joy in that memory when he speaks of it.


Thats what it is to be a slave, to live in fear.


One of the best scenes in film, note the dove carried his spirit upward, a comment that even though he thought they would not last, he was wrong. Also in the scene a great comment on one act of contrition at the end of a life.


Blade Runner - Tears In The Rain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_saUN4j7Gw



Maybe other people see it differently... But I think it is a really great scene. I do know there can be different ways to see it.

[woo me with science]

2. We're next. nt