Boston firm close to commercializing a way to freeze human eggs.

2003 SEP 4 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A Boston company says it is close to commercializing a method developed at Massachusetts General Hospital that would allow women to freeze their unfertilized eggs for possible later use.

The technique would be a major step forward in reproductive technology by allowing women to extend their fertility. Women who put off having children until later in life, or women whose ability to have children could be damaged by medical conditions, would still be capable of conceiving with their own eggs, or oocytes, officials for ViaCell, Inc., told the Boston Globe.

"This is the most robust process for cryopreserving oocytes (not yet matured eggs) that's been demonstrated to date," said Marc Beer, chairman and chief executive of ViaCell, which is better known for freezing the umbilical cord blood of newborns to preserve stem cells. "It's ready for clinical trials. Hopefully this will work in clinical trials, and we'll be offering it to patients in 18 months."

ViaCell has contracted with Boston IVF to conduct clinical trials using eggs from volunteers.

MGH researchers said the technique has been successful in test tubes and in animal experiments.

ViaCell licensed the technique from North Kingstown, Rhode Island-based Gamete Technology, Inc., a medical technology company that secured the rights from MGH doctors.

Doctors have long been able to freeze, then thaw, human sperm to fertilize eggs. But the human egg, because of its size and high water content, poses unique challenges. When frozen, the water in the egg can form crystals that destroy the egg or make it ...