Scientists from six countries are to begin work on a major new project to identify human genetic variations associated with common diseases, it was announced last week. The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) has secured funding of $100 million over the next three years for the work, which has...
An international team of researchers has identified a genetic basis for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a disease in which the immune system attacks its own body cells. The scientists, led by Dr Marta Alarcon-Riquelme at the University of Uppsala in Sweden, looked at the genetic make-up of more than 2500...
Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, head of the Family Division of the UK's High Court, has made a statement about the case of a white woman who gave birth to mixed-race twins after a mistake at an IVF clinic earlier this year. Dame Butler-Sloss has been examining the legal issues raised by...
The issuing of Dame Butler-Sloss's statement comes just one week after another IVF embryo mix-up was revealed at a London hospital. Two women receiving fertility treatment at St George's Hospital were implanted with the wrong embryos in April, but the mistake was noticed promptly and the women were recalled for...
UK scientists believe that they have found a treatment that may help a greater number of cancer patients beat the disease. The scientists, who work for Cancer Research UK, say they have developed a new method of transplanting stem cells into patients with certain forms of cancer. Stem cell transplants...
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IVF mix-ups not endemic
by Juliet Tizzard
As we report in this week's BioNews, two IVF clinics in the United Kingdom are currently subject to investigations after sperm and embryos respectively were mixed up in the laboratory. A mistake at the Diana Princess of Wales clinic at St George's Hospital in London led to the wrong embryos...