Embryonic spinal cord precursor cells generated for first time
Scientists have generated the specialised cells in the embryo that go on to form spinal cord, muscle and bone tissue and used them to produce nerve and muscle cells...
Dr Lux Fatimathas was previously a Volunteer Writer at BioNews and the Editor of BioMed Central's online magazine Biome. She was previously Genetics Editor at BioNews and at the charity that publishes it, the Progress Educational Trust (PET). She has also worked as the Communications Editor at BioMed Central and as a Science Engagement Project Manager at the Public Engagement, Media and Grants Facility (now the Grants Engagement and Communications Facility) of the Medical Research Council's Clinical Sciences Centre. She has written for the Faculty of 1000, the New Science Journalism Project, the British Society for Cell Biology's Newsletter, and the journals General Physiology and Biophysics and Histology and Histopathology. Previously, she worked at the National University of Singapore's Mechanobiology Institute, where she was Managing Editor of the educational resource MBInfo. She also worked as a Research Fellow at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, a research institute of the Government of Singapore's Agency for Science, Technology and Research, where her research involved using the zebrafish as a model for investigating skin development. She originally studied Neuroscience at University College London, and went on to obtain her PhD in Molecular Cell Biology at the Institute of Ophthalmology under the auspices of the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology's Graduate Programme. She is coauthor of a chapter in Nanomedicine and Cancer (buy this book from Amazon UK).
Scientists have generated the specialised cells in the embryo that go on to form spinal cord, muscle and bone tissue and used them to produce nerve and muscle cells...
Fertility drugs used to stimulate ovulation did not increase the chances of breast cancer for most women in a long-term study of around 10,000 women in the USA...
An artificial 'gene circuit' implanted in obese mice promotes weight loss by reducing appetite, while having no effect when implanted in mice of normal weight...
Claims for the health benefits of the typically Mediterranean diet high in olive oil, fish, and complex carbohydrates are common, if hard to substantiate...
Eleven scientists have each won £2 million as part of a prize to recognise the achievements of biomedical researchers, launched by entrepreneurs including Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Google's Sergey Brin...
Women at high risk of developing breast cancer should be offered preventative drugs, suggests the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in updated guidelines...
Scientists find those with epilepsy who have a strong family history of the disorder are also more likely to have migraines...
More sensitive prenatal testing of fetal DNA could improve the detection of genetic diseases, studies find...
Non-invasive pre-natal screening for certain abnormalities in fetal chromosomes should be offered to at-risks mothers, recommends the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists...
Scratching the womb lining may increase a woman's chances of successful IVF treatment, say UK scientists...
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