Chromosomes are tightly packaged bundles of DNA, the chemical that encodes genetic information.
Most of the cells in a human body have a set of 46 chromosomes in their nucleus, while egg and sperm cells have only 23.
Separately, each of the mitochondria in each cell of a human body contain their own DNA, in the form of (multiple copies of) a circular chromosome.
A new study suggests that children born as a result of assisted reproduction technologies may have a greater risk of particular hereditary birth defects than children who are naturally conceived. A team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Washington in the US studied a national registry...
The UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has launched a public consultation asking whether people believe that embryo sex selection techniques should be made available for non-medical purposes. The public were last consulted on the issue in 1993, when non-medical sex selection was rejected. Currently, UK law only allows...
The UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) will launch a consultation paper on sex selection this week. A leak has suggested that the document will ask whether choosing the sex of a baby for 'family balancing' or other purely social reasons should be allowed. The HFEA has not denied...
Gene therapy researchers in the US have unveiled a new technique that could cut down the risk of serious side effects associated with current methods. The team, based at Stanford University, California, say their new method delivers genes to specific locations within the chromosomes (bundles of genetic material) of the...
In this week's BioNews, we report on the issuing of licenses to two UK IVF clinics to provide a procedure known as aneuploidy screening. The aim of this technique, which is a variation of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, is to screen out embryos that, because of chromosomal abnormality, are unlikely to...
The UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has issued the first licences for a new type of genetic screening of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) embryos. The HFEA had already agreed in principle to this form of genetic screening in July 2001. Known as aneuploidy screening, the technique enables embryos...
Researchers have found new evidence that casts more light on why a faulty version of a single gene - BRCA1 - is linked to a higher rate of breast cancer in women. In women who carry a correctly functioning copy of the BRCA1 gene, which is located on chromosome 17, the risk...
New treatments for asthma may be developed thanks to the discovery of a genetic link to the condition. Scientists from the UK's Medical Research Council and the Schering Plough Research Institute in the US have located a gene that is a major contributor to asthma in a large number of...
Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) could help some women who suffer from repeated unexplained miscarriages. Carmen Rubio, co-ordinator of a PGD programme in Spain, told the annual conference of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) last week that her research showed that chromosomal abnormalities could be partly to...
The failure of gene activation might be responsible for problems that have been associated with reproductive cloning in animals. Many cloned animals have suffered from genetic abnormalities or premature death. Many cloned embryos are not viable, a lot of clone pregnancies miscarry and those animals that are born often have...
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