Heidi Nicholl was previously a Volunteer Writer at BioNews.
Research suggests a link between cannabis smoking and increased risk of miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy...
A Swedish team has successfully carried out womb transplants in sheep, leading to pregnancy. So far the researchers have worked on perfecting the technique of reconnecting the blood vessels and have removed and replaced the uterus in individual animals - known as autologous transplantation. The team removed and...
A research team comprised of scientists in Brazil and Northwestern University, Chicago has shown that they were able to reverse or halt the progression of Type 1 diabetes in newly diagnosed individuals using injections of the patients' own stem cells. Of the fifteen volunteers treated, all but...
Researchers have identified the gene which controls the critical self-renewal function of stem cells. Both adult and embryonic stem cells are able to repeatedly renew themselves, which allows them to be grown up in large numbers in the laboratory before being differentiated into specific tissue types. Although...
A new drug is being trialled in humans which has been able to cure Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) in mice with symptoms of the disease. The drug, named PTC124, has been developed by scientists working at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Pennsylvania University Medical School...
Scientists at Imperial College, London have trialled a potential new treatment for infertility in healthy female volunteers. Kisspeptin is a reproductive hormone discovered in the town of Hershey, Pennsylvania and named after the town's most famous export ('Hershey's Kisses' chocolates). Mutations in the receptor for Kisspeptin result...
Scientists in Japan have succeeded in performing cell nuclear transfer on mouse eggs left unfertilised after IVF. Lead scientist on the study Teruhiko Wakayama said, 'Before our findings, it was believed that only fresh eggs could be used. But if incompetent eggs can be cloned, then scientists...
A previously unreported form of twinning in humans has been discovered in America. The twins - dubbed 'semi-identical' - are thought to be the result of a single egg being fertilised with two sperm, and then splitting. Double fertilisations are thought to account for around one per cent of...
New research has been published confirming that 'multipotent' adult progenitor cells' (MAPCs), a type of adult stem cell, can repair and restore damaged blood systems in mice. Catherine Verfaillie and colleagues at the University of Minnesota first described these novel stem cells in 2002, but other teams...
The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) has released a set of guidelines for scientists working in this field. The 15-page report drafted by researchers, ethicists and legal experts from fourteen countries is intended to provide guidance for scientists working on stem cells but will...
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