When Jennifer Gobrecht was 17, doctors told her that she would never carry her own child.
But Thursday, researchers at Penn Medicine in Philadelphia announced that Ms Gobrecht had delivered a son by caesarean section in November, the second baby in the United States to be born using a transplanted uterus from a deceased donor.
“We were beyond lucky,” Ms Gobrecht said.
Ms Gobrecht, now 33, was born with a congenital condition called Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser syndrome, meaning she was born with ovaries, but without a uterus.
In 2017, she and her husband were exploring the possibility of implanting frozen embryos into a surrogate when Ms Gobrecht was selected to be the first patient in a trial at Penn Medicine that hopes to help five women who otherwise couldn’t carry their own children.
1/20 Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum
The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year
PA
2/20 Jackdaws can identify ‘dangerous’ humans
Jackdaws can identify “dangerous” humans from listening to each other’s warning calls, scientists say.
The highly social birds will also remember that person if they come near their nests again, according to researchers from the University of Exeter.
In the study, a person unknown to the wild jackdaws approached their nest. At the same time scientists played a recording of a warning call (threatening) or “contact calls” (non-threatening). The next time jackdaws saw this same person, the birds that had previously heard the warning call were defensive and returned to their nests more than twice as quickly on average.
Getty
3/20 Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking
The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females.
But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the “Goldilocks Zone” which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal
Ye et al/Current Biology
4/20 Elephant poaching rates drop in Africa
African elephant poaching rates have dropped by 60 per cent in six years, an international study has found.
It is thought the decline could be associated with the ivory trade ban introduced in China in 2017.
Reuters
5/20 Ancient four-legged whale discovered in Peru
Scientists have identified a four-legged creature with webbed feet to be an ancestor of the whale. Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planet’s oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago
A. Gennari
6/20 Animal with transient anus discovered
A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a “transient anus” that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely. Dr Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory could not initially find any trace of an anus on the species. However, as the animal gets full, a pore opens up to dispose of waste
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8/20 New mammal species found inside crocodile
Fossilised bones digested by crocodiles have revealed the existence of three new mammal species that roamed the Cayman Islands 300 years ago. The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal
New Mexico Museum of Natural History
9/20 Fabric that changes according to temperature created
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Faye Levine, University of Maryland
10/20 Baby mice tears could be used in pest control
A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males
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11/20 Final warning to limit “climate catastrophe”
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12/20 Nobel prize for evolution chemists
The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies
Getty/AFP
13/20 Nobel prize for laser physicists
The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his “optical tweezers” which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gérard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers
Reuters/AP
14/20 Discovery of a new species of dinosaur
The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means “a giant thunderclap at dawn”
Viktor Radermacher / SWNS
15/20 Birth of a planet
Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever.
This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star.
ESO/A. Müller et al
16/20 New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists
Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the “interstitium”.
These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins
Getty
17/20 Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists
Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest.
These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs
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18/20 One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds
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Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly.
Getty
19/20 Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter’s great red spot
The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image’s colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth.
Pictures by: Tom Momary
20/20 A 3D reconstruction of an African grey parrot post euthanasia
Included in Wellcome Image Awards, this 3D image of an African grey parrot shows the highly intricate system of blood vessels.
Scott Birch. Wellcome Images
1/20 Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum
The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year
PA
2/20 Jackdaws can identify ‘dangerous’ humans
Jackdaws can identify “dangerous” humans from listening to each other’s warning calls, scientists say.
The highly social birds will also remember that person if they come near their nests again, according to researchers from the University of Exeter.
In the study, a person unknown to the wild jackdaws approached their nest. At the same time scientists played a recording of a warning call (threatening) or “contact calls” (non-threatening). The next time jackdaws saw this same person, the birds that had previously heard the warning call were defensive and returned to their nests more than twice as quickly on average.
Getty
3/20 Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking
The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females.
But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the “Goldilocks Zone” which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal
Ye et al/Current Biology
4/20 Elephant poaching rates drop in Africa
African elephant poaching rates have dropped by 60 per cent in six years, an international study has found.
It is thought the decline could be associated with the ivory trade ban introduced in China in 2017.
Reuters
5/20 Ancient four-legged whale discovered in Peru
Scientists have identified a four-legged creature with webbed feet to be an ancestor of the whale. Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planet’s oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago
A. Gennari
6/20 Animal with transient anus discovered
A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a “transient anus” that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely. Dr Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory could not initially find any trace of an anus on the species. However, as the animal gets full, a pore opens up to dispose of waste
Steven G Johnson
7/20 Giant bee spotted
Feared extinct, the Wallace’s Giant bee has been spotted for the first time in nearly 40 years. An international team of conservationists spotted the bee, that is four times the size of a typical honeybee, on an expedition to a group of Indonesian Islands
Clay Bolt
8/20 New mammal species found inside crocodile
Fossilised bones digested by crocodiles have revealed the existence of three new mammal species that roamed the Cayman Islands 300 years ago. The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal
New Mexico Museum of Natural History
9/20 Fabric that changes according to temperature created
Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold
Faye Levine, University of Maryland
10/20 Baby mice tears could be used in pest control
A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males
Getty
11/20 Final warning to limit “climate catastrophe”
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase
Getty
12/20 Nobel prize for evolution chemists
The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies
Getty/AFP
13/20 Nobel prize for laser physicists
The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his “optical tweezers” which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gérard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers
Reuters/AP
14/20 Discovery of a new species of dinosaur
The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means “a giant thunderclap at dawn”
Viktor Radermacher / SWNS
15/20 Birth of a planet
Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever.
This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star.
ESO/A. Müller et al
16/20 New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists
Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the “interstitium”.
These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins
Getty
17/20 Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists
Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest.
These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs
José Iriarte
18/20 One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds
More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test.
Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly.
Getty
19/20 Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter’s great red spot
The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image’s colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth.
Pictures by: Tom Momary
20/20 A 3D reconstruction of an African grey parrot post euthanasia
Included in Wellcome Image Awards, this 3D image of an African grey parrot shows the highly intricate system of blood vessels.
Scott Birch. Wellcome Images
Uterine transplantation, as the process is known, is a relatively new frontier in reproductive medicine. Doctors say it could help women who have a condition called uterine factor infertility, which means they were either born without a uterus, had it removed or had uterine damage. About 5 per cent of reproductive-age women worldwide are affected, according to Penn Medicine.
“For women with uterine factor infertility, uterus transplantation is potentially a new path to parenthood – outside of adoption and use of a gestational carrier – and it’s the only option which allows these women to carry and deliver their babies,” said Dr Kathleen O’Neill, who is an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynaecology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and who helps run the trial.
There have been about 70 such transplants around the world. But most programmes have focused on living donors, researchers at Penn medicine said. (In some cases the donor was the recipient’s mother.) In the United States, there have been six live donor cases.
In 2017, the world’s first known woman to receive a uterus from a deceased donor gave birth to a 6-pound girl in Brazil. Last summer, the Cleveland Clinic announced the birth of a girl after a uterus transplant from a deceased donor, a first in the United States.
Dr Paige Porrett, an assistant professor of transplant surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and one of the study’s co-leaders, says the major advantage of using a deceased donor is that doctors are able to harvest more of the blood vessels attached to the organ.
This gives surgeons larger vessels to use during the procedure, in which vessels from the donor organ are sewn together with the patients’.
Using deceased donors also eliminates the unnecessary surgical risks that otherwise healthy living patients would undergo to donate, Dr Porrett said. Despite these risks, more than 80 women offered to donate a uterus for the trial.
Dr Porrett said there wasn’t enough data yet to determine whether there was a difference between transplanting an organ from a living or deceased donor.
The total cost of the procedure is unknown, said Dr O’Neill, who added that the hospital was paying for the five cases in the trial. She estimated that similar procedures cost $60,000 (£46,000) in Britain and upward of $200,000 (£153,000) at Baylor University Medical Centre in Dallas, which also performs the procedure.
Dr O’Neill, who has struggled with her own infertility issues, said the team had successfully transplanted a uterus into a second patient, but declined to provide further details.
In 2018, Ms Gobrecht underwent a 10-hour surgery to transfer the donor uterus. About six months later, doctors implanted the first embryo, which was ultimately successful.
“I felt the actual glow,” she said about being pregnant with her son, Benjamin. “Feeling Benjamin’s little kicks, and seeing all the ultrasounds are priceless to me.”
But there were difficult parts. Ms Gobrecht had to take immunosuppressant medicine and follow a strict regimen to prevent her body from rejecting the organ.
After Ms Gobrecht gave birth to her son, doctors removed the uterus.
On Thursday, her husband, Drew Gobrecht, said the couple were relishing changing nappies and feeding their son at their home outside Philadelphia.
“It’s been an abnormal journey so far,” he said. “We’re excited about the normal stuff.”
The Washington Post