Fertility
First UK baby born after womb transplant
A baby boy is the first in the UK to be born after a womb transplant from a deceased donor, a development doctors say could offer hope to women born without a womb.
Grace Bell, in her 30s and from Kent, was born with MRKH syndrome, a condition in which a woman is born without a viable womb. She does not have periods but has normal ovaries.
At 16, she was told she would not be able to carry her own child.
As reported by the BBC, Bell’s womb transplant took 10 hours and was carried out at The Churchill Hospital in Oxford in June 2024.
Several months later, the couple underwent IVF treatment, followed by embryo transfer, at The Lister Fertility Clinic in London.
Her son, Hugo, was born just before Christmas 2025 at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital in west London, weighing nearly 7lbs. He is now 10 weeks old.
Bell said: “It was simply a miracle. I remember waking up in the morning and seeing his little face, with his little dummy in, and it felt like I needed to wake up from a dream.
“It was just incredible.”
Bell and her partner Steve Powell paid tribute to the donor and her family.
Bell said: “I think of my donor and her family every day and pray they find some peace in knowing their daughter gave me the biggest gift: the gift of life. A part of her will live on forever.”
The successful transplant is one of 10 deceased donor womb transplants taking place as part of a UK clinical research trial.
Three have already been carried out, but Hugo is the first baby born.
In early 2025, a baby called Amy was born through the first living womb donation in the UK, at the same London hospital.
Her mother received her older sister’s womb in a transplant operation in January 2023. Five further womb transplants from close living relatives are planned.
Consultant gynaecologist Prof Richard Smith, from Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, who began researching womb transplantation more than 25 years ago and was present at Hugo’s birth, said “a huge team of people” had been involved, from the transplant operation to embryo transfer and delivery.
Bell and Powell gave their son the middle name Richard in tribute to Smith, who also founded the charity Womb Transplant UK.
The couple may decide to have a second baby, after which surgeons plan to remove the transplanted womb.
This is to spare Bell from taking a lifetime of strong drugs to prevent the immune system attacking the transplanted organ.
Transplant surgeon and joint team leader Isabel Quiroga said she was “delighted” by Hugo’s birth and described it as a breakthrough for organ transplantation in the UK.
“Very few babies have been born in Europe as a result of their mothers receiving a womb from a deceased donor,” she said.
“Our trial is seeking to discover whether this procedure could become an approved and regular treatment for some of the increasing number of women of child-bearing age who do not have a viable womb.
Smith said the birth showed that girls and young women told they did not have a womb could now have hope of carrying their own child.
A baby born following a womb transplant from a deceased donor has no genetic link to the donor.
More than 100 womb transplant operations have been performed worldwide and more than 70 healthy babies have been born as a result.
Donating a womb for transplant differs from donating other organs, such as kidneys or a heart, as it requires a specific request to families who have already agreed to organ donation.
The donor’s parents, who wish to remain anonymous, said they felt “tremendous pride” in the legacy left by their daughter. She also donated five other organs, which were transplanted into four people.
“Through organ donation, she has given other families the precious gift of time, hope, healing and now life,” her family said.
Onto Health has acquired Levy Health, a fertility software company providing precision diagnostics and patient intake for reproductive medicine.
The acquisition, fuelled by Onto Health’s US$20m Series A fundraise in April, supports its plan to build scalable, tech-enabled infrastructure for reproductive medicine.
Onto founder Roohi Jeelani, MD, called it the first of several moves in the company’s expansion strategy in a LinkedIn post, adding that there was “more coming soon”.
She said: “This isn’t just an acquisition, it’s proof of how we’re building Onto: physician-led, tech-enabled, and built to scale without losing the personal touch fertility patients deserve.”
Headquartered in Chicago, Onto Health combines evidence-based fertility care with artificial intelligence-driven diagnostics, clinical automation and longevity science.
AI-driven diagnostics use software to analyse patient information and support clinical decision-making, rather than replace clinicians.
Levy Health, founded in Berlin with US offices in San Francisco, helps medical providers identify endocrine disorders more quickly and helps clinics streamline fertility workups.
Endocrine disorders affect the body’s hormone system, which can influence ovulation, menstrual cycles and fertility.
Co-founder Caroline Mitterdorfer said joining Onto would expand Levy Health’s fertility care tools to more clinics and patients, helping physicians focus on patient care.
Onto opened its first clinic in Chicago in February, with plans for three more in the greater Chicago area.
The company said in April that it would use its new funding, led by Artis and Humania, to support additional operations in the US and expand into the Gulf Cooperation Council.
The Gulf Cooperation Council includes six Arab states bordering the Persian Gulf.
Softening ageing ovaries could help women remain fertile for longer, early animal research suggests.
Fertility declines with age for several reasons, including poorer egg quality, fewer ovarian follicles and the gradual stiffening of ovarian tissue.
Existing fertility treatments, including hormone therapy and in vitro fertilisation, mainly address hormonal imbalances or help eggs mature or become fertilised.
Scientists are now examining whether changing the physical structure of the ovaries could provide another route for future fertility treatments.
Stuart A. Cook, of the Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disorders Programme at Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School, published an accompanying commentary on the research.
Researchers led by Shixuan Wang at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China, collected healthy ovarian tissue from younger, middle-aged and older women.
They also examined samples from patients with polycystic ovary syndrome, known as PCOS, premature ovarian insufficiency, or POI, and endometriosis.
PCOS is a hormonal condition that can disrupt ovulation. POI occurs when the ovaries stop working normally before the age of 40, while endometriosis causes tissue similar to the womb lining to grow elsewhere in the body.
Tests of protein levels and gene activity found higher levels of the inflammatory protein interleukin-11, or IL-11, in ageing and diseased ovaries.
In laboratory experiments, the researchers exposed ovarian fibroblasts to IL-11. Fibroblasts are cells that produce connective tissue.
The protein caused the cells to produce excess collagen, a structural material that can build up during scarring and make tissue stiffer.
The researchers then genetically modified mice so they could not respond to IL-11. The animals developed less ovarian stiffening and maintained better ovarian function as they aged.
Similar results were seen in mouse models of PCOS and POI caused by chemotherapy.
In the final part of the experiment, older mice and rats were injected with a nanoparticle treatment containing small interfering RNA, or siRNA, designed to switch off IL-11.
The treatment made the animals’ ovaries less stiff and improved fertility.
Pregnancy rates among older mice rose from 25 per cent to 50 per cent, while average litter sizes also increased.
More rats treated with the therapy became pregnant and produced larger litters.
The approach remains highly speculative and will require considerably more research before its safety or effectiveness in women can be established.
However, the researchers said blocking the inflammatory pathway could eventually form the basis of new fertility treatments.
They said: “We propose that anti-IL-11 therapy represents a promising translational strategy for delaying ovarian ageing.”
W Group has opened applications for W Accelerate with Merck KGaA and M Ventures, inviting reproductive and maternal health startups, scaleups and spinouts to pitch for direct access to global pharma partnership and strategic investment.
Selected companies will pitch on 5th October, competing for the chance to accelerate their growth through commercial partnerships, investment, or both.
This is the third time Merck KGaA, a global leader in reproductive health, has partnered with W Group on the programme, which exists to close the innovation and investment gap in women’s health by connecting the sector’s most promising startups directly with the corporates and investors positioned to scale them.
What Merck KGaA and M Ventures are looking for
This year’s call is focused on breakthrough solutions in female infertility, fertility preservation, adenomyosis, endometriosis, polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS), ovarian insufficiency, preeclampsia and pregnancy comorbidities.
New for this round, applicants choose between three pathways depending on what they need from the programme:
- The Partnership Lane, for companies seeking commercial collaborations and strategic relationships
- The Investment Lane, for founders looking to connect with investors and secure funding to scale
- The Dual Lane, for innovators pursuing both partnership and investment opportunities
How the Accelerate event works
Selected companies get a 1:1 pitch practice session ahead of time, then a private 30-minute session with Merck KGaA and M Ventures leadership on the day itself, small-group sessions with regulatory and investment strategy experts, an “Ask Merck Anything” roundtable, and a VIP networking reception.
Key dates
- Open call launches: 8th July
- Open call closes: 2nd September
- Notification of successful companies: 11th September
- Pitch day: 5th October
Applications are open now at wplatform.typeform.com/to/KGzviBQM.
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