Check out a panel discussion at Men Having Babies West / LA 2013 Surrogacy Seminar & Gay Parenting Expo, including Q&A from prospective parents and IVF doctors who wanted to learn more about the program.
Gene Editing of Human Embryos
Foundation Director Dr. Ann Kiessling discusses new gene editing techniques and research, both at the Foundation and in the scientific community at large.
Read the article in this issue of Bedford Research Foundation Science Highlights!
SPAR FDA Inspection Report
In 2014 the Bedford Research Foundation Clinical Laboratory was inspected by the FDA, we have posted the report here:
Yahoo News Editorial: HIV-Positive Man Has Sperm ‘Washed,’ Becomes a Dad
Man meets woman. Baby comes next. It’s just that simple. Or is it? This week, Yahoo Parenting is running a series about the unique way families are formed. From a surprise adoption right before retirement, to a brother-in-law’s generous gift, to an HIV-positive father who had his sperm “washed,” read on for inspiring parenthood stories.
In 2007, when I first read that having HIV was no longer a barrier to biological fatherhood, I was shocked to the core. Many people feel the procreative urge as hard-wired, but I had pushed the idea out of my head decades earlier.
SPAR program mentioned in Fertility and Sterility Article
“Despite reasonable fecundity in HIV-infected patients, assisted reproductive services for this population have not been readily available in the United States. This is in spite of options such as that offered by the Bedford Research Foundation, where HIV-seropositive men can mail sperm samples directly from home, testing can be performed, and only specimens where no HIV is detected will be mailed back to the referring clinic. This means that any clinic capable of performing IUI or IVF-ICSI with a frozen sperm sample could potentially provide treatment for serodiscordant couples without having specimens in their laboratory with detectable HIV.”
Fertility and Sterility
“Efficacy and safety of intrauterine insemination and assisted reproductive technology in populations serodiscordant for human immunodeficiency virus: a systematic review and meta-analysis”
Vol. 102 No. 2 August 2014
We’ve Moved to South Road in Bedford, MA!
After 16 years at Davis Square in Somerville, MA, we’ve moved to Bedford, MA. The need to develop an FDA-approved laboratory module for “bench to bedside” stem cell research, plus a unique “lease to purchase” opportunity prompted the move. We have two years to raise $800,000 to purchase the building. We are seeking support from state life science research funds as well as philanthropists.
We have one pledge of $75,000. To find out more about endowing the laboratory please email ryan@bedfordresearch .org so we can take advantage of the lease opportunity and the savings in overhead that can be diverted to the research.
Our new address is:
124 South Road, Bedford, MA 01730
SPAR in the Huffington Post
At that panel, an HIV-positive parent was joined by doctors from Boston’s Bedford Research Foundation Clinical Laboratory and its Special Program of Assisted Reproduction (SPAR), which, for over 10 years, has been the go-to sperm-testing and “washing” center for HIV-positive men looking to have their own biological children without risk of infecting the gestational surrogate or the child.
Science Highlights – June 2010: Curing HIV Disease With Stem Cell Therapy
Over 50 years ago, treatments for some diseases of the immune system were developed, and are the original stem cell therapies. The treatments involve destroying all the diseased immune cells, such as leukemias, with radiation treatment and cancer drugs. (6,7,8). Once the diseased immune system is destroyed, it is replaced by transplanting new immune cells from the bone marrow of a healthy donor. (read more )