Podcast Review: How to be a Superhero — The hidden powers within your genes
When you hear the word 'superhero', the image which springs to mind may be of a billionaire playboy philanthropist or an agile acrobat in unnecessary tight latex...
BioNews
Mendelian inheritance
A pattern of inheritance displayed by a trait under the control of one gene, akin to the patterns of inheritance described by the nineteenth-century scientist and priest Gregor Mendel.
29 articles
Selfish genetic elements identified in sperm race
Genes associated with a 'selfish' survival advantage in sperm have been identified, providing evidence of sperm-level natural selection...
Sperm use poison to disable competitors
A genetic factor helps some sperm outcompete others to reach the egg cell first...
Podcast Review: Pimp My Genome — The wonderful world of epigenetics
Although we have known of the interactions of nature and nurture for decades, the term 'epigenetics' has only recently been taken up by scientists and the wider public to refer to these phenomena...
GIANT makes short work of height gene discovery
A recent large-scale study that discovered 83 rare genes related to human height reveals the power of so-called genome-wide association studies...
Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts equipment used for embryo biopsy.
Donor conception: a question of perspective
Gamete donation is big business at the Fertility Show. Why do clinics from far and wide pay thousands of pounds to exhibit in London? The simple answer is to make money. But why come to the UK? Because in the UK there is a shortage of gamete donors, or at least a perceived shortage, that's why...
Whole fetal genome sequenced for the first time
Researchers have sequenced the entire genome of an 18 and a half-week-old fetus using DNA samples from the blood of its mother and saliva samples from its father. These findings provide a proof of principle that a fetus can be examined for genetic defects using non-invasive technologies...
US health institute launches genetic test database
A free information resource detailing numerous disease-specific genetic tests that are now available was launched last week by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH)...
US National Institutes of Health put $416 million into personalised medicine
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US has demonstrated its intent to make personalised medicine a reality by outlining plans for projects set to cost almost half a billion US dollars...
Book Review: Ethical and Legal Requirements for Transnational Genetic Research
First, here is the bad news. Readers attracted by this title are in for a stormy and depressing journey. The writing, both in choice of language and sentence construction, is turgid. The problems of 'plain English' start in the six-page introduction, reach a low point in the ethical chapter and only improve slightly in the legal section...