The UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has appointed a new Chair. Suzi Leather will succeed Ruth Deech, who has been Chair of the HFEA since 1994, with effect from 6 March. Ms Leather is currently the Deputy Chair of the Food Standards Agency and will continue to hold...
American scientists say they have tricked a monkey's egg into becoming an embryo without being fertilised by sperm, and then taken stem cells from it to grow into new organ tissues. The scientists, from Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) in Massachusetts, reported the work in the journal Science. They believe that...
Scientists believe that they have discovered a 'rogue gene' that predisposes people to blood clots and may therefore cause some women to suffer recurrent or late miscarriages. It is thought that mutations in the Factor V Leiden (FVL) gene cause clots in blood vessels in the placenta, which increase the...
After a long period of intensive political and social debate, the German Parliament (Bundestag) has voted to allow the importation of human embryonic stem cells for use in research. The Bundestag had a choice of three different options. It could have voted to ban all imports of stem cells and...
A British man who had a testicular transplant operation to restore his fertility after cancer treatment is to become a father. The man became sterile after having chemotherapy for Hodgkin's disease. Nine out of ten men who have chemotherapy treatment for the disease, a cancer of the white blood cells...
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Great expectations
by Juliet Tizzard
This week's BioNews reports on a man who has become a father after a testicular tissue transplant to restore his fertility. This news, coupled with last week's development in ovarian tissue transplants, demonstrates just how far we've come in the treatment of cancer. Not so many years ago, just surviving...