In another stem cell study, scientists working for the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) have shown that mouse embryonic stem cells (ES cells) can develop into nerve cells that can then be used to treat Parkinson's disease in rat models. The report also appears in Nature Online. The team...
Men with Klinefelter's syndrome have fathered children using a version of the intra-cytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) fertility technique. Klinefelter's is a condition in which, due to the presence of an extra X chromosome, symptoms sometimes include mental retardation, but always signal infertility. Men with Klinefelter's cannot produce viable sperm. A...
Reporting in the advance online publications section of the science journal Nature, a team of US researchers, led by Catherine Verfaille of the University of Minnesota, has shown that a type of adult stem cell derived from bone marrow (mesenchymal cells) has many of the same characteristics as embryonic stem...
Two teams of researchers report that they have used stem cell technology in mice to 'grow' a thymus - an organ that is a vital part of the immune system. The thymus produces cells that fight infections, but becomes less effective with age, or because of attacks by viruses such as...
The UK House of Lords has agreed to hear an appeal from the ProLife Alliance. In January, the UK Court of Appeal overturned a High Court ruling that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Act 1990 did not regulate cloned embryos. Last year, the ProLife Alliance had successfully argued that...
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More good news for stem cell research
by Dr Jess Buxton
This week's BioNews reports on two exciting new studies in stem cell therapy research. Everyone agrees that stem cells could hold the key to new treatments for a range of diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and diabetes. But not everyone agrees on the best source of these cure-all cells, although the...