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Neuroscience

W&M joins statewide neuroscience alliance | Williamsburg Yorktown … – Williamsburg Yorktown Daily

WYDaily.com is your source for free news and information in Williamsburg, James City & York Counties.

Participation in the Virginia Neuroscience Initiative will open new opportunities for William & Marys neuroscientists.

Josh Burk says the VNI is a component of the Virginia Biosciences Health Research Corporation (VBHRC, also known as the catalyst) a state created non-profit corporation. Burk is chair of William & Marys Department of Psychology and an affiliated faculty member of the universitys expanding neuroscience program.

The VNI is an effort to bring together major research institutions within the commonwealth to collaborate more than they have in the past, Burk explained. Another aspect is that the commonwealth is putting funds into this, so theyre looking at return on investment.

Burk said VNI participation would be particularly beneficial for William & Marys neuroscience program, an initiative that straddles five departments and conducts one of the universitys most popular undergraduate major programs.

William & Mary is one of seven academic institutions participating as core members of VNI, along with five major medical centers: Carilion Clinic, Inova Health System, Sentara Healthcare, UVA Health System and VCU Health. VNI also includes industrial partners.

Burk says that VNI participation offers a number of benefits, all of which revolve around collaboration. For example, the alliance has increased access to scientific instruments throughout the commonwealth. VNI researchers can use facilities at other VNI institutions at the same rate as researchers in the home institution.

Say that I had a collaborator at the University of Virginia, I could put a core facility at UVA into my grant proposal, Burk explained. Its something that I would have access to and at the same rate as someone at UVA. Its going to really strengthen grant proposals.

He added that VINs mission of collaboration matchmaker begins with a registry of Virginia neuroscientists. William & Mary has a couple dozen names on the registry now, and Burk says the goal is to have 50, once the word gets out to students, graduate students and post-docs in the universitys neuroscience community.

Anyones whos interested should be in the registry students, faculty, graduate students, whomever, Burk said. Even if theyre not doing core neuroscience research, they might have expertise that could contribute to neuroscience.

The registry makes a good starting part to find a collaborator. Burk has been working in a successful long-term, inter-institutional collaboration, a partnership that has received two RO1 grants from the National Institutes of Health. The key to creating a successful research partnership is to find someone who is working on something similar, but who has different, complementary, skills.

But you need to be compatible to be able to work together, he said. This is where the registry helps, because you can call someone up or invite them to come visit.

Burk pointed out that William & Mary has a lot to offer a statewide neuroscience collaboration, offering a wide range of experts from cellular-molecular research to behavioral and cognitive neuroscience to computational neuroscience.

He added that there are a number of core facilities available on campus as well, led by the nuclear magnetic resonance facility operated by Myriam Cotten, associate professor of applied science.

Thats a piece of equipment thats unique within Virginia, and there are very few instruments like that around the world, Burk said.

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W&M joins statewide neuroscience alliance | Williamsburg Yorktown ... - Williamsburg Yorktown Daily

Neuroscience

Neuroscience proves meditation makes your brain work better – Vail Daily News

VAIL Your brain is complex, but meditation makes it work better, says neuroscientist, Marjorie Hines Woollacott, Ph.D.

Woollacott is a research scientist and university professor who was certain that the brain was a purely physical entity controlled by chemicals and electrical pulses. Consciousness, she used to assert, was what she and her highly trained brain could perceive.

Meditation taught her to think outside the box, and the box is our bodies and physical perceptions. Her scientific research about meditation found that consciousness extends beyond the brain.

brain activity

She has been conducting scientific research for 10 years.

Her sister meditated and introduced her to it. Woollacott loves her, but dismissed her was one of those "Woo-woo" people.

"My boyfriend called her a bubblehead," Woollacott said.

Her sister invited her to a meditation confab in upstate New York. Woollacott was skeptical but wanted to visit my sister, so she went. The yogi touched Woollacott's head and she felt an energy flow through her head and down to heart. She was amazed, but still a scientist.

"There were no scientific findings about this," Woollacott said, so she started her own study. "The scientific mind in me thought this was too way out there."

'neurons in your brain'

In a controlled laboratory setting, people strapped on gear that attached 256 electrodes on their heads. Woollacott measured the amount of attention they were giving complex tasks, and found that meditators had twice the mental acuity of sedentary adults. Meditation quiets the mind and trains the brain to focus on the task at hand, she said.

"When your mind is quiet and it's not distracted by a million thoughts," Woollacott said.

"As a scientist, consciousness is solely the product of neurons in my brain," Woollacott said. "But because I've had experiences in meditation that tell me otherwise, I've now done research to say it's much more, and that consciousness can exist without the activity of neurons in my brain and that we have a connection with a vast consciousness that we are part of. That more vast consciousness contracts down into our own awareness. In certain moments, it can expand back outward that connects us with other parts of reality."

Woollacott herself meditates, which is how she started down this road. She will speak about her findings in a Vail Symposium Consciousness Series program today at Colorado Mountain College in Edwards. She's also conducting a workshop Friday morning.

The Friday morning workshop will be less of a lecture and more experiential, as Woollacott leads participants in an in-depth exploration of the nature of consciousness from both the scientific perspective and that of direct experience, discussing how each contributes to a complete understanding of the topic.

Woollacott has been a neuroscience professor at the University of Oregon for more than three decades and a meditator for almost four. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. She has written more than 180 peer-reviewed research articles, several about meditation

Staff Writer Randy Wyrick can be reached at 970-748-2935 and rwyrick@vaildaily.com.

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Neuroscience proves meditation makes your brain work better - Vail Daily News

Human Behavior

Human Behavior Hurting Bees, Researchers Say – PCT Magazine

In a research essay published recently in the Journal of Economic Entomology, Robert Owen argues that human activity is a key driver in the spread of pathogens afflicting the European honey bee and recommends a series of collective actions necessary to stem their spread.

As reported by the Entomological Society of America, in the search for answers to the complex health problems and colony losses experienced by honey bees in recent years, it may be time for professionals and hobbyists in the beekeeping industry to look in the mirror.

In a research essay published recently in the Journal of Economic Entomology, Robert Owen argues that human activity is a key driver in the spread of pathogens afflicting the European honey bee (Apis mellifera) and recommends a series of collective actions necessary to stem their spread. While some research seeks a magic bullet solution to honey bee maladies such as Colony Collapse Disorder, many of the problems are caused by human action and can only be mitigated by changes in human behavior, Owen says.

Owen is author of The Australian Beekeeping Handbook, owner of a beekeeping supply company, and a Ph.D. candidate at the Centre of Excellence for Biosecurity Risk Analysis at the University of Melbourne. In his essay in the Journal of Economic Entomology, he outlines an array of human-driven factors that have enabled the spread of honey bee pathogens:

Regular, large-scale, and loosely regulated movement of bee colonies for commercial pollination. (For instance, in February 2016 alone, of the 2.66 million managed bee colonies in the United States, 1.8 million were transported to California for almond crop pollination.).

Carelessness in the application of integrated pest management principles leading to overuse of pesticides and antibiotics, resulting in increased resistance to them among honey bee parasites and pathogens such as the Varroa destructor mite and the American Foul Brood bacterium (Paenibacillus larvae). The international trade in honey bees and honey bee products that has enabled the global spread of pathogens such as varroa destructor, tracheal mite (Acarapis woodi), Nosema cerana, Small Hive Beetle (Aethina tumida), and the fungal disease chalkbrood (Ascosphaera apis).

Lack of skill or dedication among hobbyist beekeepers to adequately inspect and manage colonies for disease. Owen offers several suggestions for changes in human behavior to improve honey bee health, including: Stronger regulation both of global transport of honey bees and bee products and of migratory beekeeping practices within countries for commercial pollination.

Greater adherence to integrated pest management practices among both commercial and hobbyist beekeepers.

Increased education of beekeepers on pathogen management (perhaps requiring such education for registration as a beekeeper).

Deeper support networks for hobby beekeepers, aided by scientists, beekeeping associations, and government.

The problems facing honeybees today are complex and will not be easy to mitigate, says Owen. The role of inappropriate human action in the spread of pathogens and the resulting high numbers of colony losses needs to be brought into the fore of management and policy decisions if we are to reduce colony losses to acceptable levels.

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Human Behavior Hurting Bees, Researchers Say - PCT Magazine

Genetics

Genetics to boost sugarcane production – SciDev.Net

Scientists in Brazil are taking steps towards genetically modifying sugar cane so it produces more sucrose naturally, looking to eventually boost the productivity and economic benefits of the tropical grass. Currently, it is common for producers to raise sucrose levels in sugar cane by applying artificial growth regulators or chemical ripeners. This inhibits flowering, which in turn prolongs harvest and milling periods. One of these growth regulators, ethephon, is used to manage agricultural, horticultural and forestry crops around the world. It is widely used to manipulate and stimulate the maturation of sugarcane as it contains ethylene, which is released to the plant on spraying. Ethylene, considered a ripening hormone in plants, contributes to increasing the storage of sucrose in sugar cane. "Although we knew ethylene helps increase the amount of sugar in the cane, it was not clear how the synthesis and action of this hormone affected the maturation of the plant," said Marcelo Menossi, professor at the University of Campinas (Unicamp) and coordinator of the project, which is supported by the Brazilian research foundation FAPESP. To study how ethylene acts on sugarcane, the researchers sprayed ethephon and an ethylene inhibitor, aminoethoxyvinylglycine (AVG), on sugar cane before it began to mature.

After spraying both compounds, they quantified sucrose levels in tissue samples from the leaves and stem of the cane. They did this five days after application and again 32 days later, on harvest. Those plants treated with the ethephon ripener had 60 per cent more sucrose in the upper and middle internodes at the time of harvest, while the plants treated with the AVG inhibitor had a sucrose content that was lower by 42 per cent. The researchers were then able to identify genes that respond to the action of ethylene during ripening of the sugar cane. They also successfully identified the genes involved in regulating sucrose metabolism, as well as how the hormone acts on sucrose accumulation sites in the plant. Based on the findings, the team has proposed a molecular model of how ethylene interacts with other hormones. "Knowing which genes or ripeners make it possible for the plant to increase the accumulation of sucrose will allow us to make genetic improvements in sugarcane and develop varieties that over-express these genes, without the need to apply ethylene, for example," explained Menossi. This research could also help with spotting the most productive sugar cane, as some varieties that do not respond well to hormones, he added. "It will be possible to identify those [varieties] that best express these genes and facilitate the ripening action." Taken from anewsletterbyFAPESP, aSciDev.Netdonor, edited byour Latin America and the Caribbean desk

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Genetics to boost sugarcane production - SciDev.Net

Genetics

Harvard team leads breakthrough on the genetics of parenting – Harvard Gazette

Why is it that some species seem to be particularly attentive parents while others leave their young to fend for themselves? For years, scientists have believed one of the major drivers is experience an animal raised by an attentive parent, the argument goes, is likely to be an attentive parent itself.

A Harvard study is challenging that idea, and breaking new ground by uncovering links between the activity of specific genes and parenting differences across species.

Led by Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and Molecular and Cellular Biology Hopi Hoekstra and postdoctoral researcher Andrs Bendesky, the study found not only that different genes may influence behaviors in males and females, but also that the gene for the hormone vasopressin appears to be closely tied to nest-building behavior in parenting mice. The research is described in an April 19 paper published in Nature.

This is one of the first cases in which a gene has been implicated in parental care in a mammal, Hoekstra said. In fact, its one of the few genes that has been implicated in the evolution of behavior in general but what I think is particularly exciting about this is the idea that, while in many systems we know that parenting behavior can be affected by your environment, we now have evidence that genetics can play an important role as well.

We know there is variation between species in how much parental behavior they provide for their young, Bendesky said. Its not that one is better or worse, theyre just different strategies but before our study we had no idea how these parental behaviors evolved, whether there was one gene that mediates all of the differences in behavior, or if it was 10 or 20.

The idea for the study grew out of differences in mating systems researchers had observed between two sister mouse species Peromyscus maniculatus, also known as the deer mouse, and P. polionotus, the oldfield mouse.

Like many rodents, the deer mouse is what we refer to as promiscuous, meaning both males and females mate with multiple individuals, Hoekstra said. Often when you genotype a litter, you will find pups from multiple fathers.

The oldfield mouse, by comparison, is monogamous, so all the pups in a litter are sired by one father.

Its been widely documented that these mice have different mating systems, Hoekstra said. When Andrs joined the lab, he was interested in asking the question: Do those differences translate into differences in parental care?

Bendesky first created a behavioral assay that tracked the behavior of males and females of each species and measured how often they engaged in parental behavior such as building nests and licking and huddling their pups.

In general, the data showed that females of both species were attentive mothers. The major differences, Hoekstra said, were in the fathers. Oldfield mice fathers were as involved in raising pups as oldfield mothers, but deer mice fathers werent.

To test the impact of different parenting styles, Bendesky performed a cross-fostering experiment, allowing oldfield mice parents to raise deer mouse pups, and vice versa. The researchers then observed the parenting behavior of the pups when they became parents themselves.

What we found was theres no measurable effect based on who raises them, Hoekstra said. Its all about who they are genetically.

To investigate those genetics, the researchers crossbred the species, then crossbred the offspring, creating second-generation hybrid mice that had regions of the genome from each species.

When the team began to identify regions in the genome that were associated with behavioral differences between the species, they discovered that some effects were sex-specific, but that some regions appeared to influence a handful of behaviors.

By Peter Reuell, Harvard Staff Writer | November 17, 2016 | Editor's Pick

What I find very interesting is that we found different genes may explain the evolution of paternal and maternal care, Bendesky said. Thats interesting because it tells us that if some mutation in a population increases maternal care, it may not affect the behavior of males. So these behaviors may be evolving independently.

The other significant result here is that there are some regions that affect multiple traits, and others that have very specific effects, Hoekstra added. For example, we found one region that affects licking, huddling, handling, and retrieving, but another that affected only nest-building.

Bendesky turned to locating individual genes that might be linked with parental behaviors.

We looked at expression in a region of the brain called the hypothalamus, which is known to be important in social behavior, Hoekstra said. Specifically, we were looking at which genes showed differences in expression between the two species. While each region might contain hundreds of candidate genes, there were only a handful that fit those criteria.

Almost immediately, she said, one gene for the production of vasopressin, part of a pathway past findings had linked to social behavior in voles jumped out at them.

To test whether vasopressin affected parental behavior, Bendesky administered doses of the hormone to male and female oldfield mice, and found that nest-building behavior in both dropped. A similar experiment in collaboration with Catherine Dulacs lab, which used genetic tools to manipulate the activity of vasopressin neurons in lab mice, confirmed these results.

The findings also open the door to new insight on the neurological circuitry involved in parental behavior.

This gives us molecular handles to start understanding the circuitry much better, Bendesky said. We can see what is happening in the brain not in the abstract but we can say vasopressin is going from this part of the hypothalamus to this other part of the brain, so we can see how the brain is organized.

By Jill Radsken, Harvard Staff Writer | April 20, 2017

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Harvard team leads breakthrough on the genetics of parenting - Harvard Gazette

Genetics

Mosaic (genetics) – Simple English Wikipedia, the free …

In genetics, a mosaic (or mosaicism) means the presence of two different genotypes in an individual which developed from a single fertilized egg. As a result, the individual has two or more genetically different cell lines derived from a single zygote.[1]

Mosaicism may result from:

The phenomenon was discovered by Curt Stern. In 1936, he demonstrated that recombination, normal in meiosis, can also take place in mitosis.[2] When it does, it results in somatic (body) mosaics. These are organisms which contain two or more genetically distinct types of tissue.[3]

A genetic chimera is an organism composed of two or more sets of genetically distinct cells. Dispermic chimeras happen when two fertilized eggs fuse together. Mosaics are a different kind of chimerism: they originate from a single fertilized egg.

This is easiest to see with eye colours. When eye colours vary between the two eyes, or within one or both eyes, the condition is called heterochromia iridis (= 'different coloured iris'). It can have many different causes, both genetic and accidental. For example, David Bowie had the appearance of different eye colours due to an injury that caused one pupil to be permanently dilated.

On this page, only genetic mosaicism is discussed.

The most common cause of mosaicism in mammalian females is X-inactivation. Females have two X chromosomes (and males have only one). The two X chromosomes in a female are rarely identical. They have the same genes, but at some loci (positions) they may have different alleles (versions of the same gene).

In the early embryo, each cell independently and randomly inactivates one copy of the X chromosome.[4] This inactivation lasts the lifetime of the cell, and all the descendants of the cell inactivate that same chromosome.

This phenomenon shows in the colouration of calico cats and tortoiseshell cats. These females are heterozygous for the X-linked colour genes: the genes for their coat colours are carried on the X chromosome. X-inactivation causes groups of cells to carry either one or the other X-chromosome in an active state.[5]

X-inactivation is reversed in the female germline, so that all egg cells contain an active X chromosome.

Mosaicism refers to differences in the genotype of various cell populations in the same individual, but X-inactivation is an epigenetic change, a switching off of genes on one chromosome. It is not a change in the genotype.[6] Descendent cells of the embryo carry the same X-inactivation as the original cells. This may give rise to mild symptoms in female 'carriers' of X-linked genetic disorders.[7]

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Embryology

Embryonic Development – Embryology

Introduction Author Comments Start here by looking at the external appearance of embryos in sequence from 1 to 23. It is not so important to memorise the dates, as they are only approximate, but more important to understand growth (size changes) and the development (overall sequence of events) during this period.

Clicking the Carnegie stage numbers opens a page dedicated to describing that single stage and the associated developmental events.

There are links to more detailed descriptions which can be viewed in a week by week format, by the Carnegie stages or integrated into a Timeline of human development.

Online resources include: individual images of all Carnegie stages, scanning electron micrographs of the earlier stages, cross-sections showing internal structures at mid- and late-embryonic, 3D reconstructions of internal structures, animations of processes, ultrasound scans and information about abnormalites of development.

Note that there is variability in the actual timing of specific events and at the end of this period fetal development begins.

This definition was also published by the same group in 2007.

J K Findlay, M L Gear, P J Illingworth, S M Junk, G Kay, A H Mackerras, A Pope, H S Rothenfluh, L Wilton Human embryo: a biological definition. Hum. Reprod.: 2007, 22(4);905-11 PubMed 17178746

Historically: "The distinction between the embryonic and the fetal periods at 8 postovulatory weeks has proved valuable. It is based primarily on the probability that more than 90 percent of the more than 4,500 named structures of the adult body have appeared by that time."

O'Rahilly R. 1979. Early human development and the chief sources of information on staged human embryos. Europ. J. Obstet. Gynec. Reprod. Biol., 9, 273-280. PMID 400868

O'Rahilly R. and Mller F. Developmental Stages in Human Embryos. Contrib. Embryol., Carnegie Inst. Wash. 637 (1987).

Weeks shown in the table below are embryonic post ovulation age, for clinical Gestational Age (GA) measured from last menstrual period, add 2 weeks.

The embryos shown in the table are from the Kyoto and Carnegie collection and other sources.

Cite this page: Hill, M.A. 2017 Embryology Embryonic Development. Retrieved April 21, 2017, from https://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology/index.php/Embryonic_Development

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Embryonic Development - Embryology

Biochemistry

Shawnee researcher at KSU helps unravel tree mystery – The Dispatch

Salt cedar may have gotten a bad rap.

Also known as the flowering tamarisk tree, salt cedar originated in drier areas of Eurasia and has become a major weed in the southwestern United States, where it is considered an invasive species.

Now, biochemistry researchers at Kansas State University may not only exonerate the plant, but also find that it can help remove pollutants from the environment.

Larry Davis, professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics, and undergraduate researchers Alexcis Barnes, Salina, and Katie McKinley, Shawnee, are working to understand why salt cedar is so prolific.

The plant can tolerate high levels of two things that are toxic to other plants when present in more than trace amounts: salt and boron.

Both can become concentrated from river irrigation, and boron is a common pollutant that finds its way into water from industry such as glass making, facilities burning wood or coal, and other sources.

Boron pollution carries grim implications for agricultural areas.

In the western part of the central valley of California, for example, its a limiting factor, Davis said. Theyre down to about five crops they can grow because the boron contamination makes black spots on lettuce and other plants.

They can still grow sunflowers and canola because they are harvesting the oil and dont care about the leaves.

Research on salt cedar has been scant, and as the plant has spread, people have assumed that it was choking out or even killing native plants.

Davis work may demonstrate that salt cedar is thriving where other plants cant survive because of boron contamination in water and soil.

McKinley, a junior in biochemistry, has worked with Davis for two years.

She conducts experiments with salt cedar to test how much boron the plants can take.

Salt cedars can withstand up to eight times the boron that a normal sunflower can withstand, McKinley said. Thats crazy, because they are much more slow-growing. They withstand up to 250 parts per million, which is a lot. Eight parts per million will kill other things. Its really impressive.

According to McKinley, salt cedars take up boron and then secrete it on their leaves as a film.

The next step is to determine how the plants take up boron and whether they could be used to take boron out of the soil.

Thats where Barnes comes in.

She is studying the channels in cell membranes that allow water and other particles into the plant, known as aquaporins, to see how they work in salt cedar.

When she completes a new aquaporin model, she is hoping to determine whether salt cedar simply excludes boron or takes it up into its tissues.

Another undergraduate in the Davis lab is exploring whether lipids in the roots explain the plants boron resistance.

Understanding these mechanisms may lead to using salt cedar to help remove pollutants from water or soil, a process known as phytoremediation.

Salt cedar could be planted in areas with boron-contaminated water, for instance, and allowed to take up the pollutant, then cut down and used for fuel.

Both McKinley and Barnes are participating in undergraduate research through Kansas State Universitys Developing Scholars Program.

The program offers high-achieving, underrepresented students research experience along with academic, social and financial support.

Barnes said the program helped her learn to manage her time and set priorities, plus develop her scholarly skills.

The program allows you to network and have a developed scholarly education by the end of your undergraduate career, Barnes said. I feel like I would be missing out on something had I not been doing the research.

McKinley agreed and said the lab experience has built her confidence.

It gives you a lot of lab work experience in safety protocol and using the tools and machines. I can do the mass spectrometry, calculate molarity I have physical experience for years doing this. I feel more confident in my skills working in a lab, McKinley said.

Davis supports the program, noting 10 biochemistry majors are in the Developing Scholars Program.

Biochemistry is a growing field, partially because the Medical College Admission Test emphasizes the field.

Barnes and McKinley both hope to enter the medical field.

Barnes wants to attend medical school and McKinley plans to become a pharmacist and work in a hospital or conduct pharmacology research.

Both say incoming freshmen should seek out opportunities to engage in research and find a mentor like Davis.

Its been wonderful to work with Dr. Davis and learn from him, Barnes said. He is so knowledgeable, and hes patient and is good about explaining higher-level concepts to me.

He can explain in ways I can understand or draw them out on paper. He involves me in conversations with other labs and helps me with networking. Hes a wonderful mentor.

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Shawnee researcher at KSU helps unravel tree mystery - The Dispatch

Anatomy

UHS Anatomy Dept named after Prof Tahir – The Nation

LAHORE - The University of Health Sciences (UHS) has named its Anatomy department after late Prof Muhammad Tahir.

Prof Muhammad Tahir has been the head of UHS Anatomy department for last 11 years. He died on Wednesday at the age of 87, bringing to an end a prolific career as teacher, a researcher, and an administrator. His work in all these domains was distinguished by a highly original critical thinking and personal vision of morality and ethics.

A memorial service for Prof Muhammad Tahir was held at the university on Thursday which was attended by UHS Vice Chancellor Prof Junaid Sarfraz Khan, faculty members and students.

Prof Junaid Sarfraz Khan planted a Banyan tree at Kala Shah Kaku Campus of the university in the memory of the deceased.

Prof Tahir was a graduate of King Edward Medical College Lahore. He did his MBBS in 1952 with gold medal for standing first in the University. He taught in various national and international institutes. He did his PhD from London University. He had more than 50 research publications to his credit.

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UHS Anatomy Dept named after Prof Tahir - The Nation

Embryology

Re Case K (no 2) (Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008) [2017] EWHC 783 (Fam) – Family Law Week

Home > Judgments

Case summary coming soon

Case numbers omitted Neutral Citation Number: [2017] EWHC 783 (Fam) IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE FAMILY DIVISION

Royal Courts of Justice Strand, London, WC2A 2LL

Date: 12 April 2017

Before :

SIR JAMES MUNBY PRESIDENT OF THE FAMILY DIVISION

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In the Matter of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Case K) (No 2)

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Case dealt with on paper

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Judgment This judgment was handed down in open court

Sir James Munby President of the Family Division : 1.In these two linked cases I gave judgment on 19 January 2017: Re the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008 (Case K) [2017] EWHC 50 (Fam). In the one case, proceeding in the Family Division, I made a declaration in the terms sought by the claimant, X. In the other case, an application by X for judicial review in the Administrative Court, I made a quashing order in agreed terms.

2.There is no issue as to the costs of the proceedings in the Family Division, but I now have to determine the costs of the judicial review proceedings in accordance with the following directions as set out in the order I had made on 13 October 2016:

"The issue of costs shall be dealt with by way of written submissions in accordance with the following timetable:-

i)The Claimant shall file and serve written submissions within 14 days of the approval by the Court of this Consent Order;

ii)The Defendant and Interested Party shall file written submissions in response within 14 days of service of the Claimant's submissions;

iii)The Claimant shall have 7 days thereafter to file any submissions in reply to the Defendant's and Interested Party's submissions."

The Defendant is the relevant local authority: see Case K, paras 5, 25. The Interested Party is the Registrar General.

3.In written submissions dated 30 November 2016, X seeks an order for costs against the local authority, though not against the Registrar General, essentially on the ground that he was successful in the judicial review proceedings. He invites me to assess his cost summarily in the sum of 16,510.12 (inclusive of VAT). The local authority, in written submissions dated 14 December 2016 supplemented by an email dated 23 December 2016, seeks orders (a) that the Registrar General pay its costs or in the alternative (b) that there be no order for costs and in any event (c) refusing X's application for costs against it. The Registrar General, in written submissions dated 9 January 2017, submits (a) that there should be no order as to costs and in any event (b) that he should not have to pay the costs of the local authority.

4.I deal first with X's application for costs against the local authority.

5.The kernel of X's case is the principle expounded by Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury MR in R (M) v Croydon London Borough Council [2012] EWCA Civ 595, [2012] 1 WLR 2607, paras 59-61:

"59 Where a claimant obtains all the relief which he seeks, whether by consent or after a contested hearing, he is undoubtedly the successful party who is entitled to all his costs, unless there is a good reason to the contrary. However, where the claimant obtains only some of the relief which he is seeking (either by consent or after a contested trial) the position on costs is obviously more nuanced

60 Thus in Administrative Court cases just as in other civil litigation, particularly where a claim has been settled, there is, in my view, a sharp difference between (i) a case where a claimant has been wholly successful whether following a contested hearing or pursuant to a settlement, and (ii) a case where he has only succeeded in part following a contested hearing, or pursuant to a settlement, and (iii) a case where there has been some compromise which does not actually reflect the claimant's claims. While in every case the allocation of costs will depend on the specific facts, there are some points which can be made about these different types of case.

61 In case (i), it is hard to see why the claimant should not recover all his costs, unless there is some good reason to the contrary. Whether pursuant to judgment following a contested hearing, or by virtue of a settlement, the claimant can, at least absent special circumstances, say that he has been vindicated, and as the successful party that he should recover his costs "

X submits that this is a case of type (i).

6.The local authority resists this, in summary because, it asserts: (a) that it was relying on the Registrar General's published guidance in the Handbook so it is the Registrar General who should be paying X's costs; (b) that it adopted an approach to the proceedings that was helpful, sensitive and pragmatic in seeking to arrive collaboratively at the right outcome, for instance by not challenging the grant of permission out of time; and (c) that it does not necessarily agree X's account of events on the two occasions when he and his partner sought to register the births (raising in this connection the question of why neither X and his partner nor the clinic drew the Registrars' attention to the Form IC). The Registrar General makes similar submissions and adds as further reasons why there should be no order for costs: (a) that the dispute of fact as to precisely what happened on the two occasions when X and his partner sought to register the births remains unresolved (see Case K, para 15); and (b) that the clinic was to blame (i) in setting off the whole chain of events and (ii) in failing to assert to the local authority (see, again, Case K para 15) that there was in fact an adequate written notice, a Form IC, even though there was no Form WP and no Form PP.

7.The short point, at the end of the day, in my judgment, is that, as against the local authority, X was completely successful. The claim was conceded, and my judgment proceeded, on the short ground that the Registrar (for whose acts the local authority is liable) erred in law refusing to register the births: Case K, paras 23-25, 30-31. X succeeded in his legal argument and obtained the order he wanted.

8.In my judgment, none of the various points canvassed by the local authority and the Registrar General provides any justification for departing from the general approach outlined in R (M). The fact that what actually took place before the Registrar remains to an extent unresolved is neither here nor there, for the Registrar's error of law was conceded and, having been conceded, was determinative. The fact that the Registrar was relying on the Registrar General's Handbook is neither here nor there as between X and the local authority. The fact that but for the clinic's initial error there never would have been the need for proceedings is factually correct but, again, neither here nor there. To repeat: X succeeded because of what is conceded to have been the Registrar's error of law. That, at the end of the day is, in my judgment, the factor of magnetic, indeed determinative, significance. I should add that the point faintly argued by the Registrar General, based on something said by the clinic before there was any suggestion of judicial review proceedings, that I am entitled to infer that the clinic will meet X's costs of the judicial review proceedings, is in my judgment wholly lacking in merit and cannot in any event have survived the very clear order set out in paragraph 2 above.

9.I shall accordingly order the local authority to pay X's costs of the judicial review proceedings. There has been no challenge to the schedule of costs, nor, in my judgment, could there be. So I shall summarily the costs in the sum of 16,510.12.

10.I turn to consider the question of whether the Registrar General should be ordered to pay the local authority's costs. The local authority's key point is that, as it would have it, the real cause of what happened was what is now accepted to have been the error in the Registrar General's Handbook. The Registrar General, on the other hand, points to: (a) the principle that an interested party is normally neither entitled to costs nor exposed to liability for costs (see R Smeaton) v Secretary of State for Health [2002] EWHC 886 (Admin), [2002] 2 LR 146, paras 431-435); (b) various of the factors I have referred to in paragraph 6 above; (c) the fact that the Registrar never sought guidance from the Registrar General before deciding not to register the births; and (d) the fact that "in law" the error was that of the Registrar, for whom the local authority is liable, and that the attempt to make the Registrar General liable is "misguided in light of the statutory scheme."

11.In my judgment, the fair, just and reasonable outcome in this most unusual case is that, so far as their own costs are concerned, the local authority and the Registrar General should each bear their own costs. In their different ways, each has to bear a significant measure of responsibility for having put X in a position where, if he was to be rescued from the position in which the state's failings had put him (see Case K, para 21), he had no choice but to issue a claim for judicial review. I can see no real justification for ordering either to pay the costs of the other. The real question, in my judgment, is whether the Registrar General should be required to reimburse the local authority in relation to the costs I have ordered it to pay X.

12.As the competing submissions summarised in paragraph 10 above highlight, both the Registrar General and the Registrar share some measure of responsibility for what happened, the one because of the error in the Handbook, the other because of the omission to seek further guidance. To leave the local authority alone responsible for meeting X's costs would, in my judgment, significantly and unfairly exonerate the Registrar General from the consequences of the uncorrected error in the Handbook but for which the problem would never have arisen. As I have already said, in their different ways, each has to bear a significant measure of responsibility for having put X in the position in which he found himself. In my judgment, broad justice will be done as between the local authority and the Registrar General if I order the Registrar General to reimburse the local authority one-half of the costs that I have ordered the local authority to pay to X, in other words, the sum of 8,255.06.

More here:
Re Case K (no 2) (Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008) [2017] EWHC 783 (Fam) - Family Law Week