Scientists in the US have become the first to produce a viable human embryo using an egg collected from ovarian tissue that had been kept in frozen storage. Dr Kutluk Oktay and colleagues from Cornell University Weill Medical College published their research in the early online version of The Lancet...
Mammals may continue to produce new eggs throughout their lives, a study carried out on mice suggests. The findings challenge the long-held belief that female humans, mice and other mammals are born with a finite supply of eggs, which lasts until the menopause. A team of researchers at the Massachusetts...
A woman from Tasmania is 14 weeks pregnant with a baby that could eventually help to save the life of its ill brother. The parents of a four-year-old boy with an inherited immune system disorder traveled to the Sydney IVF clinic, in order to conceive a child who could provide...
Stem cells isolated from mouse hair follicles can grow new hair when transplanted into another animal, a new US study shows. Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia also identified a unique set of genes, which were switched on in the hair stem cells but not...
Human fat cells can be 'reprogrammed' to produce cells capable of growing into bone, cartilage, fat and nerve cells, say researchers at Duke University Medical Centre, North Carolina, in the US. The versatile cells appear to be true adult stem cells - 'master' cells that can grow into a variety of...
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'Saviour siblings' debate down under
by Juliet Tizzard
This week's BioNews reports on news that a 'saviour sibling' is to be born in Australia. A couple from Tasmania sought preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) with tissue typing in order to have a second child who would be free from a particular genetic condition, Hyper IgM syndrome. In addition, the...