Two projects aiming to pinpoint genetic and other influences on health have been launched in the US. The Genes and Environment Initiative (GEI), based at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will look at genetic variations and measure environmental factors such as exposure to toxins. The other initiative is a...
Scientists in the US have discovered what gives sperm cells the burst of energy they need to be able to reach and penetrate an egg. Researchers at the Boston Children's Hospital and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute measured the electrical activity taking place in a single sperm cell. Reported in...
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is 'highly heritable', and genetic factors may also influence the timing of the condition, say US researchers. The team, based at the University of Southern California, studied 392 pairs of twins in which one or both had AD. Their results, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry...
Seoul National University (SNU) has suspended the discredited South Korean scientist Woo Suk Hwang and six other professors in his team from their teaching and research posts. The scientists have yet to be formally punished by SNU, for faking data and breaching ethical standards in their work on human embryonic...
Michael Steele, the Republican deputy Governor of the US state of Maryland, has clarified his position on human embryonic stem (ES) cell research, after comparing it to the science and medical experimentation used by Nazis during the Holocaust. Steele explained that what he meant to convey was the need to...
Comment
Preventing cross-border fertility treatment raises legal as well as practical concerns
by Diane Blood
A recent report from the Human Genetics Commission (HGC) - the UK government's advisory body on genetics - 'Making Babies: Reproductive decisions and genetic technologies' is the latest in a string of reports designed to help the UK form new legislation on assisted reproduction. I was deeply concerned to read of this...
Reproductive rights - and wrongs?
by Dr John Gillott
Baroness Kennedy, launching the Human Genetics Commission (HGC)'s new report, Making Babies: reproductive decisions and genetic technologies, said: 'Science, harnessed by society to prevent real suffering, is a social good. However, a culture which does not acknowledge that all humanity has a value, and that each one of us...
Should women who do not seek fertility treatment provide egg cells for stem cell research?
by Dr Jan Deckers
The UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is reported to be considering allowing women to donate eggs specifically for cloning research. Three issues must be considered to address this question: firstly, if creating life to kill it is justifiable; secondly, if the expected benefits outweigh the costs; and thirdly...