The Wellcome Trust, Britain's largest biomedical research charity, is said to be in talks with the UK Government over a £300 million bid to buy the ill-fated millennium dome at Greenwich. It is thought that the charity plans to turn the dome into a medical research park, complete with laboratories...
An American lesbian has given birth to an IVF baby created from her brother's sperm and an egg from an anonymous donor. The 51 year old woman, who has not been named, has been in a stable relationship with another woman for 15 years and longed for a baby, but...
A gene variation that increases the risk of heart attacks in smokers has been identified by researchers from St Bartholomew's Hospital and University College, London. The eight-year study was funded by the British Heart Foundation and involved over 3000 men aged between 50 and 61. It has found that men...
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) agreed in principle on Friday to allow a new type of genetic screening of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) embryos in the UK. Known as aneuploidy screening, the technique enables embryos to be tested for a range of genetic abnormalities and may help fertility...
Doctors from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, have developed a technique in which no sperm is required to make an embryo. Designed as a method of getting around male infertility, the technique involves taking any body cell and 'fertilising' an egg with it. Body cells, however, contain two sets of...
Scientists from the Eastern Virginia Medical School in the US have reported in Fertility and Sterility, the official journal of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM), that they have been creating embryos from donated eggs and sperm for the sole purpose of obtaining stem cells. The research, which was...
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Embryology critics get hot under the collar
by Professor Kirsty Horsey
Human reproduction and embryology have certainly made a few headlines this week. This edition of BioNews reports some of the stories that have caused journalists to get hot under the collar: an Australian team has found a way to fertilise eggs without sperm; American scientists are creating embryos from donor...