The Hematology of Institute for Medical Research (IMR) is initiating a study known as Derivation of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Lines which is sponsored by the Ministry of Health Malaysia. This programme is aimed to derive human embryonic stem cell lines from the inner cell mass of human blastocyst and establish the very first Malaysian stem cell line. Metro IVF is now assisting in this programme by providing excess donated blastocysts.
These pluripotent (has the potential to differentiate into any of the cell types) stem cells are capable of developing into specialized cell types such as brain cells and heart cells. The stem cells have the potential to be used as specialized cell-based therapy for transplantation into damaged or diseased human organs like the brain and heart. They have therapeutic potential in treating many diseases including Parkinson's disease, diabetes, chronic heart disease, end-stage kidney disease, liver failure and cancers.
As part of the assisted reproductive technique (ART), female patients are stimulated with drugs to yield more eggs and often result in multiple embryos. However, only a maximum of three embryos will be transferred back to the uterus and the surplus embryos can be:

For those who have ART done at Metro IVF have excess embryos which they do not want to freeze and will later be discarded, they may consider to donate their embryos for this programme. However, the decision is yours. You will be asked to give your informed consent if you agree to donate your embryos. You will be assured that your donated embryos will only be used for research purpose and not to be transferred to other women's uterus. There will be no misuse of the embryos for other purposes except derivation of human embryonic stem cell lines. When you are agree, Metro IVF will culture your embryos until blastocyst stage before they are tansferred to IMR.
Please feel free to contact us if you are interested and need further information about this programme.