A report on the donation of human bodily material for medicine and research has made several recommendations including removing the current cap on egg and sperm donor expenses in the UK...
DNA extracted from the teeth of plague victims buried in London over 660 years ago has been used to reconstruct the genome of the bacteria that led to the Black Death. The study, carried out by a team of scientists from Canada and Germany, showed that the genetic make-up of this medieval bacteria has remained remarkably unchanged compared to modern day strains...
A genetic mutation known to increase a woman's risk of cancer could also increase their fertility, research suggests. Women with mutations in the BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes, which are associated with a higher risk of breast and ovarian cancer, were found to have larger families when compared to control groups...
Genetics and stem cell research have been combined for the first time to correct a genetic mutation associated with liver disease. This new approach could lead to people with a genetic disease being treated with their own cells....
The blood condition sickle cell disease may be reversed by turning off a single gene, according to scientists in the USA. By inactivating a single gene in red blood cells the researchers were able to alleviate symptoms of the disease in mice, offering the hope of a potential new treatment for humans...
A US doctor accused of implanting stem cells into chronically ill patients pleaded not guilty at a court hearing on Thursday 13 October. Dr Ralph Conti, of Henderson, Nevada, has been accused of transplanting stem cells harvested from placental tissue into patients, at the direction of Alfred Sapse, who was falsely claiming to be a doctor....
Increasing numbers of women under the age of 25 are turning to sperm donors online, an investigation by the Sunday Times has shown. Many of these women have stable jobs and good support networks, and see no reason to wait before starting a family...
Eating high quantities of fresh fruit and vegetables can counterbalance the effects of having a genetic predisposition to heart disease, an international study has found...
The future of the UK's fertility regulator has been debated by a House of Commons committee. An amendment to the Public Bodies Bill that, if passed, would have prevented the abolition of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), was proposed but ultimately withdrawn by Labour MP Valerie Vaz...
'One of the very few universal laws of history is this: whenever and wherever people of different races have been brought together they have always mixed. For most of human history the power of sex managed to undermine the power of race'...
'Me, My Sex and I' is a documentary about people who are born neither entirely male nor female. I must state at the outset that this programme is about the sex of the individual, and should not be confused with gender, which is how people identify themselves (something that many other TV reviews have got wrong in describing this programme). As the show makes clear, sex is not an 'either or' for many people; the real buzz word here is 'ambiguous'....
Comment
Bienvenue Monsieur Brooks and hasta la vista Vivienne
by Sarah Norcross
This edition of BioNews sees a new Science Editor, as James Brooks takes over from Dr Vivienne Raper....
Evidence and models of best practice should guide recruitment of gamete donors
by Professor Eric Blyth and 2 others
We welcome much of what Kamal Ahuja wrote in his recent BioNews Commentary 'If it ain't broke don't fix it'. Like him, we believe there is no good evidence to demonstrate that paying 'donors' would increase the supply of donated sperm or oocytes. On the contrary, there is evidence to suggest that properly constructed donor recruitment programmes — such as the one pioneered at the London Women's Clinic — are capable of recruiting a good supply of altruistic donors...
Race and genetics in stem cell transplantation
by Professor Steven Marsh
Each year around 2,800 people in the UK have a stem cell transplant, without which they would have shortly faced death, usually from a blood cancer or another blood disorder. The race of a patient is a real factor in how likely they are to match with a donor....