The addition of one or more nucleotide base pairs into a DNA sequence. Insertions into the coding region of gene (insertion mutations) often stop the gene working.
A boy enrolled on a pioneering gene therapy trial has developed leukaemia, his doctors based at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital have announced. The three-year-old was of one of 10 patients treated for X-SCID: a genetic disorder whereby a mutation in the IL2RG gene leaves carriers without...
By Ailsa Taylor: Three independent research groups have reported successfully causing skin cells from adult mice to revert back to an embryonic stem cell-like state; a technique that could potentially help to resolve the ongoing ethical debate over stem cell research. Published in the journal Nature, this groundbreaking research could...
Replacement genes used to treat an inherited immune disorder could trigger cancer, new research carried out on rodents suggests. The study, published in the journal Nature, shows that treating mice with a normal copy of the gene defective in X-linked severe combined immune deficiency (X-SCID) results in cancer of the...
A team of scientists based in Frankfurt, Germany, has become the world's first to treat a rare and 'incurable' hereditary immune disease in adults, using gene therapy. Gene therapy has been used successfully in the past, but this has generally been in the treatment of children. Over the past two...
European regulators have rejected a licence application for a new drug based on a human protein extracted from the milk of genetically altered goats. If the drug had been given the go-ahead by the European Medicines Agency (EMEA), it would have been the first treatment of its kind to be...
US scientists have shown that the genetic fault underlying sickle cell disease can be corrected in embryonic stem (ES) cells derived from mouse embryos with the disorder. The team, based at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), derived ES cell lines from affected embryos, and managed to replace the...
Japanese scientists have used laser light to activate genes delivered to rats' eyes, New Scientist magazine reports. The team, based at the University of Tokyo, says the method will help make gene therapy more effective, by allowing precise control over when and where the therapeutic genes are switched on. The...
Scientists have unveiled a completed version of the entire chimpanzee genome, after publishing a rough draft in December 2003. The international team, which reported its findings in the latest issue of Nature, says that chimps share 96 per cent of their genetic material with humans. And the DNA that makes...
European scientists aim to create a library of mouse embryonic stem cells that can be used to research human diseases. This library would make it easier and faster for researchers to obtain mouse stem cells with specific genes already 'knocked-out' so that they will not need to spend the time...
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