Researchers at King's College in London have succeeded in growing the UK's first human embryo stem cell-line, it was reported last week. 'We are very excited about this development' said team leader Stephen Minger, adding that human embryonic stem cells 'are capable of giving rise to all the different types...
Researchers in China have 'reprogrammed' human cells by fusing them with rabbit eggs emptied of their own genetic material, and have also managed to isolate stem cells from the resulting embryos, reported last week's Nature. The team, based at the Shanghai Second Medical University, think that the stem cells derived...
A group of male cancer patients whose stored sperm samples were lost following a refrigeration fault at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, UK, are now seeking compensation. Sperm from 28 patients, taken before the men underwent cancer treatment that was likely to make them infertile, was lost after a long-term frozen...
Baroness Helena Kennedy, chair of the UK's Human Genetics Commission (HGC) has said in an interview with the UK's Financial Times that the HGC is likely to reject proposals to genetically screen all newborn babies. In a White Paper issued in June 2003, the government proposed new measures to strengthen...
Barrie and Tony Drewitt-Barlow, the millionaire gay couple who had twins in 1999 using an egg donor, IVF and a surrogate mother from the US, have announced the birth of their third child, born a week ago, according to the Daily Mail. Their healthy baby boy, Orlando, was born to...
ViaCell, a biotechnology company based in Boston, US, has announced that it is developing a procedure to enable women to freeze their eggs for later use. The procedure is ready to begin clinical trials and ViaCell says it would like to be able to offer the service within 18 months...
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Genetic profiling at birth: a storm in a teacup?
by Juliet Tizzard
This week's BioNews reports on an interview with Human Genetics Commission chair, Baroness Helena Kennedy, in which she describes the idea of carrying out genetic profiling of newborn babies as 'unlikely'. In the interview, published in the Financial Times, Kennedy voices her concern that we might rush ahead with new...