Human brain atlas, revealing genetic activity in 3D, published online
The first detailed maps of genetic activity in the human brain have been published online by scientists...
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).
The first detailed maps of genetic activity in the human brain have been published online by scientists...
The Medical Research Council has awarded £60 million to the University of Edinburgh to advance research into human genetic diseases...
US researchers have for the first time sequenced the genome of a fetus using only a blood sample from the mother. It is hoped this new form of non-invasive sampling could allow doctors to screen for a range of genetic diseases prenatally, with minimal risk to the fetus...
A chemical produced by stem cells promotes recovery in mice with the autoimmune neurological disease, multiple sclerosis. Hepatocyte growth factor, which is produced by human mesenchymal stem cells, appeared to both repair existing damage and prevent future neurological harm in a mouse model of the disease...
Scientists have discovered the enzyme in our cells which corrects the most frequently occurring mistake in DNA as cells divide...
Former shadow health secretary Mr John Healey has called for mothers of children conceived using a surrogate to be given equal maternity pay, leave and rights as other mothers. Currently mothers who use surrogates are entitled to 13 weeks unpaid leave, in contrast to mothers who adopt or conceive themselves, who are entitled to 52 weeks leave with 39 weeks maternity pay....
Researchers in the US have used gene therapy to reduce the severity of seizures in a rat model of epilepsy. The gene injected into the rats codes for somatostatin, a hormone which is normally found in low levels in people with the condition...
Unhealthy lifestyles associated with social deprivation may have detrimental effects on DNA before birth, say scientists. A study of adults living in Glasgow shows a correlation between deprivation and DNA methylation - a normal process that occurs mainly during embryonic development and regulates gene activity...
The transfer of one or two embryos during IVF should be dependent on the age of the mother, according to a UK study...
Apologies have been issued by a Welsh IVF clinic following the accidental destruction of three patients' sperm samples. The samples, known as straws, were collected from patients undergoing treatments for blood disorders and cancer that may affect their fertility. An investigation is underway as to why no senior staff were informed when the samples were destroyed in March this year...
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