Warning over animal-human hybrids
Medical research involving animals that contain human material (ACHM) raises new ethical concerns and should be more tightly regulated, warns a new report by the Academy of Medical Sciences....
Dr Rachael Panizzo was previously a Volunteer Writer at BioNews, having originally joined the publication under the auspices of its writing scheme. She is a Research Funding Manager in the Strategy and Research Team at Cancer Research UK, and previously worked as a Senior Policy Executive at the British Medical Association. She also writes for publications including openDemocracy, and she participated in the Intelligence Squared debate 'Feminism Has Nothing to Fear from Darwinism'. Previously, she studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, specialising in Anatomy and Neuroscience. She went on to obtain her PhD at University College London, where she developed magnetic resonance imaging techniques for stem cells. She was also formerly a Biomedical Sciences Editor at the journal Opticon1826, and she interned in Science Policy at the Institute of Biology (now subsumed into the Royal Society of Biology).
Medical research involving animals that contain human material (ACHM) raises new ethical concerns and should be more tightly regulated, warns a new report by the Academy of Medical Sciences....
Scientists have identified a set of 15 genes that are associated with triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), an aggressive form of the disease that does not respond to the drugs commonly used to treat other types of breast cancer...
What does Mary Shelley's Frankenstein have in common with Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner', Kazuo Ishiguro's 'Never Let Me Go' and Aldous Huxley's 'Brave New World'? According to Philip Ball, these are all permutations of the myth of anthropoieia - the artificial creation of human life...
Embryonic stem cells have been used to generate a basic retina, the part of the eye that detects light and is needed for vision. The retinal tissue could be used to treat some forms of blindness, such as retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration, and to investigate and screen potential new drugs for a range of eye diseases....
Scientists have identified a rare gene mutation which they believe is linked to schizophrenia. The researchers from the University of California, San Diego and Trinity College Dublin performed a genome-wide association scan...
The creation of human life through artificial means is often portrayed as an inherently dangerous and unnatural process, where the product of any such attempt is assumed to be somehow inferior and lacking in humanity. This is a recurrent idea that looms over contemporary debate surrounding many scientific advances and technologies in biology, from reproductive cloning to embryonic stem cell (ESC) research, IVF and human genetics....
Promiscuity may increase the fertility of male offspring, a new study has found. Australian researchers demonstrated that males from polygamous breeds of mice out-compete monogamous males in the race to fertilise females and produce offspring....
Faulty stem cells may cause the onset of male pattern baldness, scientists have found. Professor George Cotsarelis and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia discovered that stem cells are present in the hair follicles of both bald and hairy scalp regions in men with male pattern baldness...
A gene variant that has previously been linked to aggression and impulsiveness — the MAOA-L ‘warrior gene' variant — is also associated with shrewd financial decision-making, a new study claims...
A British man has become the first patient in the world to receive a pioneering stem cell therapy to repair brain damage caused by stroke....
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