US scientists have used nerve stem cells to treat mice affected by severe spinal cord injuries. The team, based at the University of California at Irvine, said the treated animals regained the ability to walk just a few weeks after receiving the injections. The findings, published in the Proceedings of...
Two UK geneticists and two Canadian biologists will share the 2005 Lasker awards for Clinical Medical Research and Basic Medical Research respectively, the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation has announced. Edwin Southern and Alec Jeffreys will be honoured for developing new techniques to study DNA, both of which have revolutionised...
The UK's Royal Society has published a report on the potential of pharmacogenetics - drug treatments tailored to a person's genetic make-up - following a year-long investigation into the subject. It concludes that although 'personalised medicines' have a promising future, it will be at least another 15-20 years before their use...
Scientists from the University of Hawaii School of Medicine have published results of a study showing that in intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI), using sperm stripped of its acrosome results in fewer deformed embryos. When traditional IVF is unsuccessful, couples may take up the option of ICSI. In this technique a...
Scientists at Oxford University have used a jellyfish gene that codes for a green protein to 'light up' hamster sperm and enable them to study the function of fertility genes. Dr John Parrington, who leads the research team, said that the real aim of the study 'is to use this...
Florida may be the next US state to fund embryonic stem (ES) cell research, under a proposed constitutional amendment put forward by the group Floridians for Stem Cell Research and Cures (FSCRC). The proposal would allocate $200 million over ten years to the research and its backers say the language...
UK researchers have produced a mouse with extra human genetic material that mimics Down syndrome much more accurately than previous mouse 'models' for this condition. The scientists, based at the UK's National Institute for Medical Research and the Institute of Neurology at University College London, hope the mouse will shed...
Some UK couples seeking help to have children will have to wait until their thirties before they qualify for state-funded IVF treatment on the National Health Service (NHS), according to a report in the Independent on Sunday (IOS) newspaper. While many health authorities set an upper age limit for treatment...
Comment
Raising awareness of the UK egg and sperm donor shortage
by Pip Morris
Today, John Gonzalez, founder of the internet sperm firm Man Not Included, announced that he is launching a direct mailing campaign to attract new sperm donors. The mailshot will be sent to 50,000 men, to tackle the predicted shortage of donors following the announcement earlier this year that people conceived...