Allan Pacey

Journey to the egg: How sperm navigate the path to fertilization COMIC: Male cells must survive twisty passages, strong currents and immune attacks; millions enter, but only one can finish

A few months ago I worked with
@adance.bsky.social to create a science comic for @knowablemag.bsky.social about the journey sperm makes to reach the egg. Little did I know that that this would involve me being immortalised in cartoon form. Check it out .... knowablemagazine.org/content/arti...

Newshour - Sperm with cancer-causing gene used to conceive almost 200 children - BBC Sounds A sperm donor unknowingly had a genetic mutation raising the risk of cancer

A busy day giving lots of comments on a tragic story of 197 children born using donor sperm with an undetected mutation now putting them at risk of cancer. My interview with the BBC World Service (available for the next 29 days) gives more details about the case. www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Quick break from the day job and a trip to London to give a talk at the British Fertility Society fertility preservation conference about when it’s safe for men to father children after chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment. Thanks for inviting me!

Busy day today at the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale in Paris reviewing grants in reproductive medicine and biology. Some great projects funded. What a great team led by Catherine Racowsky and involving Adam Balen, Virginia Bolton, Eve Feinberg, Richard Legro, Anja Pinborg & Nicolas Plachta.

From Manchester for the world.

We are proud to launch our bold strategy to 2035. Together, we're redefining what a great civic University looks like for the 21st century.

Visit our webpage to explore our ambition in full: www.manchester.ac.uk/about/manche...

YouTube video by Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health UoM Postgraduate Research at the University of Manchester

youtu.be/FgmHHlKv5ME

This is what an official dinner with the Austrian ambassador to Saudi Arabia looks like … thanks for inviting me!

Last week I spent three days
at KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) attending the @timeshighered.bsky.social World Academic Summit. The theme was "Universities as Agents of Progress" and it was therefore fitting that the conference was held at KAUST. What an amazing campus.

Did they not phone you?

Looking forward to speaking at this event in Manchester on Thursday. Come join us if you are free. Register at: events.teams.microsoft.com/event/a606e8...

Reflecting on the day it struck me that in all my conversations with Bob (that I can remember) we rarely talked about science, but mostly about Yorkshire. So from one proud Yorkshireman to another, thanks Bob for all you did.

Had a great day on Friday at @cam.ac.uk celebrating what would have been the 100th birthday of IVF pioneer Bob Edwards. Some great talks and it was interesting to see some of the information held in @chuarchives.bsky.social

Great to give a lecture at the British Fertility Society study week in London yesterday on my favourite topic “Male fertility after cancer treatment”. Good to catch up with old friends and colleagues too!

I hope you survived the day Andy, end of an era. Your work has touched so many. Wishing you all the best for the next chapter … keep in touch

Leicester or Gloucester?

Busy day today but still time to pop into BBC Radio Sheffield and have a chat with the lovely Paulette Edward’s about 3 parent babies and other things IVF related!

Great article from the good folk at @newcastleuni.bsky.social reporting the first UK births from mitochondrial donation www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Busy week in Paris last week and not much time to post anything, but I did manage to attend a reception on the Champs-Élysées courtesy of my collaborators at Cryos International. We have more papers coming, watch this space!

Lab-grown sperm and eggs just a few years away, scientists say Quest to create viable human sex cells in lab progressing rapidly, with huge implications for reproduction

My comments in @theguardian.com courtesy of
@hannahdevlin.bsky.social concerning the prospects for lab grown sperm (and eggs) "I’m ready for it. Whether society has realised, I don’t know.” Other comments from the super @rodtmitchell.bsky.social too! www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

'Notable' rise in dads over 60 in England and Wales Official figures show that the birth rate in England and Wales went up for the first time since 2021.

My comments on BBC News (who I can't find on bluesky) concerning the 'Notable' rise in dads over 60 in England and Wales www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

ALL young men need regular sperm checks, says top reproductive expert Most men only think about getting the quality of their sperm checked when they have tried unsuccessfully with a partner to start a family.

My comments in @dailymail.co.uk about sperm quality in older men and whether or not there are merits in getting it tested regularly www.dailymail.co.uk/health/artic...

It was great to give a keynote at The Fertility Show this weekend in London and have the opportunity to catch up with @fertilityalliance.bsky.social (of which I'm Patron), as well as the gents from The Male Fertility Podcast. Great to see male infertility coming out of the shadows!

The World’s First Sperm Race Seemed Too Good to Be True. It Was. For starters, it wasn’t the first. The winners were known in advance. And the ‘race’ was computer-generated.

Turns out that last week's sperm race in LA was not a world first (that was done by me in 2004 for the BBC) but also seemingly computer generated. Read more at www.thefp.com/p/the-naked-... @thefp.com

Great to attend the 2nd IVF conference organised by the Dr Sulaiman Al Habib Medical Academy in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) over the last few days. There were some great speakers and I gave a lecture in a session about sperm DNA testing as well as meeting up with old friends, colleagues and students!

I’ll be speaking at this year’s Fertility Show on Saturday 17th May 2025 at Olympia London. Find out more at www.fertilityshow.co.uk Save 25% on tickets! T&Cs: Offer valid on general admission tickets only until the Show. Cannot be used with other offers. Use code SP25 at checkout. See you there!

The Birdman of Skomer With English captions.

Here is a great film "The Birdman of Skomer" about my friend Professor Tim Birkhead and his 50+ year study of guillemot's on the island of Skomer - please share! vimeo.com/1063680641/2...

After a delayed arrival to Tunisia, I had interesting visits to see mosaics at the National Museum of Bardo, the lovely town of Sidi Bou Said, and the ancient city of Carthage, including the old Punic port.

Just about to try again on another plane!

This morning’s holiday flight to Tunisia turned out to be a two hour aerial tour of Cheshire and Derbyshire! #stillinmanchester

Men with higher-quality sperm live longer, study finds Research suggests difference in life expectancy between men with highest and lowest quality is nearly three years

My comments in @theguardian.com about a new study which suggests that men with higher quality sperm live longer www.theguardian.com/science/2025... courtesy of @iansample.bsky.social