The world's largest database of medical information has opened online, allowing researchers around the world to access its contents. The UK Biobank holds anonymous information from more than 500,000 British people, making it a 'globally unique resource' according to England's chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies...
The Vatican has cancelled a stem cell research conference scheduled to take place next month, citing a lack of participants...
The US Supreme Court has ordered that the two gene patents held by Myriad Genetics be sent back to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, to be re-examined...
Differences in the severity of people's flu symptoms may be due to a genetic variant, according to scientists...
Synthetic biology, which uses genetic engineering to build new genomes and organisms, has come under attack in a report published by Friends of the Earth and supported by over 100 other 'public interest' groups...
A law reform committee in the Australian state of Victoria has recommended that all donor-conceived people should be able to access identifying information about their donors...
A recent report claims England's regulator of health and social care, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), is not at present ready to take on the functions of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA)...
Civil liberty groups in the USA have filed a legal challenge to the 'personhood' ballot initiative in Oklahoma, as a separate measure known as the Personhood Act progresses through the State legislature...
A clinical trial to test the safety of a stem cell treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the most common form of motor neurone disease, suggests that the new therapy is safe and well-tolerated. Encouragingly, one of the 12 patients participating in the study showed some improvement, although the trial was not designed to test the treatment's efficacy...
As I sit at my computer on this glorious Sunday morning to write this review, I suddenly realise the coincidence of the day: it is Mother's Day. Today of all days it seems very apt to be writing a review of Sarah Rayner's novel about two women and their quest to become mothers....
Last week the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) released a POST Note - a guide for MPs and other parliamentarians on science and technology issues - on consumer genetic testing...
Comment
Victoria's secret (or 'V' for victory)
by Dr Ruth Shidlo
The recent recommendations of the Law Reform Committee in Victoria, Australia, are expected to gain bipartisan support in Parliament and lead the way for reform. They represent a world first in establishing the right of donor-conceived people to retrospective access to identifying donor information...