The long-awaited report by the UK's Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson on the ethical and scientific issues surrounding therapeutic cloning research was published last Wednesday. It calls for a change to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act of 1990, to allow scientists working on stem cell therapies to carry out...
Religious and pro-life groups have expressed concern over the UK government's proposal to change the law to allow scientists to develop disease therapies using cells from early human embryos. The Vatican newspaper condemned last week's decision, saying that a human is an individual before 14 days and after 14 days...
A new study has prompted fresh concerns over the safety of xenotransplantation - the use of pig organs for human transplants. A team of researchers based at the Scripps Institute, La Jolla, California, found that mice given pig tissue transplants became infected with pig viruses. Their results are available on Nature's...
Two research groups reported successfully cloning pigs last week, using two different variations of the technique used to clone Dolly the sheep. A team based at the National Institute of Animal Industry, Japan, published details of the method it used to clone a pig - called Xena - from an embryo cell...
A team of American researchers has discovered how to turn bone marrow stem cells, which normally grow into a variety of different blood cells, into nerve cells in the laboratory. Their findings, published in the Journal of Neuroscience last week, could help develop new treatments for a range of conditions...
The Japanese government has created an expert advisory panel to oversee the drafting of ethics guidelines for human genome research, according to a news report in last week's Nature. The panel is expected to produce draft guidelines by the end of the year, say government officials. Informal guidelines were issued...
PPL Therapeutics, the commercial offshoot of the Roslin Institute, announced a deal with German firm Bayer last week aimed at developing a new treatment for cystic fibrosis and emphysema. PPL has bred genetically altered sheep that produce the human protein alpha-1-antitrypsin in their milk. Bayer will develop a...
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All those in favour of embryo stem cell research say 'aye'
by Juliet Tizzard
Last week's announcement that British MPs are to be offered a free vote on embryo stem cell research and therapeutic cloning was always going to provoke a strong public and media response. But the fact that the announcement was made during parliament's summer holiday and was not backed up by...