HL Deb 22 January 1981 vol 416 cc556-7WA
Lord Taylor

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What steps the Medical Research Council is taking to support research into teratology.

Baroness Young

The Medical Research Council supports research relevant to teratology both in its own establishments and by way of grants to research workers in university departments and medical schools.

At the council's clinical research centre studies are being undertaken on (1) the effects of waste anaesthetic gases on operating theatre staff and teratogenic effects in animals and control of contamination, and (2) on the effects of anaesthetics on cardiac contractility, cell motility and division and mutagenesis.

The following projects in universities and medical schools are currently supported by the council:

Name of Project Institute
Positional signalling in chick limb morphogenesis Middlesex Hospital Medical School
Hamster teratogens in potato sprouts London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
The effect of aminocentesis and liquor drainage on pulmonary development in the Macaque monkey University College London School of Medicine
Nutritional mechanisms in the early rat embryo and their susceptibility to modification by teratogens University of Leicester
Effects of ethyl alcohol on cell acquisition, migration and differentiation in the developing brain Royal Postgraduate Medical School
Development of whole-embryo culture methods for studying teratological problems University of Cambridge
Further studies on the effects in rodents of fusarium mycotoxins Royal Veterinary College, London
Environmental Factors responsible for the appearance of neural tube defects in curly-tail mice Guy's Hospital Medical School, London

In addition, other basic work is also being carried out under the council's auspices involving or relevant to teratogens in the field of (1) mammalian and vertebrae development; (2) studies in the mechanisms of mutagenesis of human and other mammalian cells; (3) neural tube defects including anencephalia and spina bifida; and (4) rubella and foetal development studies generally.