An adult stem cell that may have the potential to grow into any other type of cell in the body has been found in the bone marrow of mice. This may offer the promise of treatment or cures for many human conditions, but without the ethical problems that surround the...
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has said that it will extend its moratorium on the use of genetic test results. A voluntary ban already exists in life insurance applications for mortgages of up to £100,000. Now the use of tests for all types of insurance policies of up to...
Scientists have isolated and cultivated stem cells taken from the brains of human cadavers. In a letter to Nature, Professor Fred Gage and his colleagues from the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, describe how they have obtained stem cells and caused them to grow and develop into specialised brain...
A gene that is involved in the sex determination of fetuses can also cause serious genital malformations in babies. Scientists have discovered malformations can occur in babies born with more than two copies of the WNT-4 signalling gene. Most people have two copies of the gene which is found...
Canadian Health Minister, Allan Rock, has presented draft legislation on assisted reproduction to the Canadian Government's Standing Committee on Health. The legislation would be the first of its kind in Canada and would ban human cloning and other 'unacceptable practices' whilst regulating assisted reproduction treatment provision and research. The committee...
Scientists in the US have announced that babies have been born carrying the DNA of three parents: two women and a man. The babies were the result of a controversial program using ooplasmic transplantation - effectively adding cytoplasm from a donor woman's egg to that surrounding the nucleus of an infertile...
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Three parents and a baby?
by Juliet Tizzard
It's strange how scientific studies become news stories. Usually, science journalists trawl the reputable journals for published papers which seem to have important or controversial findings. They write up the findings in layman's terms and get them published the following day. But the latest controversy in reproductive science has taken...