Grant: Project Grant

The health of the newly fertilised embryo is an important determinant of fertility. One problem commonly experienced by women undergoing fertility treatments is that the early embryo has cells with the wrong number of chromosomes - termed 'aneuploid' cells. Embryos with aneuploid cells are considered unlikely to give rise to a healthy baby. Indeed, many clinics use the presence of aneuploid cells to discard bad-quality embryos rather than transfer them back to the patient. The presence of aneuploid cells in the early embryo indicates that errors have taken place during chromosome segregation - the process of sharing the chromosomes between the daughter cells at the time of cell division. However, despite the clear importance in human fertility, the cause of these chromosome segregation errors in early embryos is unknown. Our laboratory specialises in the use of state-of-the-art imaging approaches to observe and investigate the process of chromosome segregation, and we have developed an assortment of techniques for observing these processes in embryos. Here we will perform some of the first examinations of how chromosome segregation works in the early mammalian embryo, and try to understand why this process goes wrong so often. Most of our experiments will use mouse embryos, with some experiments using human embryos that can no longer be used for treatments. This work will shed light upon the causes of chromosome mis-segregation in the embryo, helping to explain the problems experienced by many fertility patients, and we hope that our experiments will directly lead to improved methods for selecting embryos for transfer to patients in the clinic.