Fruit and veg keeps genetic risk of heart disease at bay
Eating high quantities of fresh fruit and vegetables can counterbalance the effects of having a genetic predisposition to heart disease, an international study has found...
Dr Rebecca Robey was previously a Volunteer Writer at BioNews, having originally joined the publication under the auspices of its writing scheme. She is a Research Associate in Immunology at Imperial College London's Department of Medicine, where her research focuses on the use of fowlpox virus as a vaccine vector. Previously, she studied Genetics with industrial experience at the University of Manchester, and incorporated a year in industry working at Tulane University's Centre for Gene Therapy where she researched adult stem cells. She went on to obtain her PhD in Viral Oncology from University College London, and has also worked as an Assistant Editor at Nature Publishing Group.
Eating high quantities of fresh fruit and vegetables can counterbalance the effects of having a genetic predisposition to heart disease, an international study has found...
The winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2011 were announced on 3 October with an unusual twist — for the first time the accolade has been bestowed on someone posthumously. This is normally against the Nobel Assembly's rules, but Professor Ralph Steinman's untimely death on 30 September occurred after messages had been sent to him informing him of his success...
A District Court judge in the US has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to ban federal funding for human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research. The decision, by Judge Royce Lambeth, is the latest development in the case of Sherley v Sebelius — a landmark lawsuit filed against the US's state-funded National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2009...
Canadian scientists have identified a master stem cell that is capable of becoming any of the different types of cell found in blood. The discovery offers hope of alternative treatments for people who would normally require bone marrow transplants to replenish their blood supply, for example those with cancer or blood disorders...
Surgeons have successfully transplanted a synthetic organ into a human for the first time. In a groundbreaking operation, a cancer patient's windpipe was replaced with an artificial replica that had been grown using his own stem cells....
Scientists in Japan have reported the production of mice that have rat's organs. They suggest that one day this technique could be used to grow spare human organs in another species such as pigs, easing organ shortages and reducing long waiting times for transplants...
Two clinical trials to test whether embryonic stem cells can treat two incurable eye disorders have been launched in the USA. Twenty-four patients will be treated during the trials at the Jules Stein Eye Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)...
IPS (induced pluripotent stem) cells from mice can be recognised by their own immune system and destroyed, scientists at the University of California, San Diego, have found...
Mice produced in the laboratory from two biological mothers and without a father have been found to live significantly longer than normal mice bred from a mother and a father. These findings indicate that genetic traits inherited from the father but not the mother may play an important role in ageing and longevity....
The link between a certain genetic mutation and the most common form of brain tumour has been unravelled by US scientists. The mutation, in a gene called IDH1, was already known to be associated with the development of brain cancers, but it was not known how the mutation contributed to the disease....
BioNews, published by the Progress Educational Trust (PET), provides news and comment on genetics, assisted conception, embryo/stem cell research and related areas.