Adult stem cells from bone marrow may be fusing with other types of body tissue, rather than replacing them, two new US studies suggest. The research, published in Nature, shows that in mice, liver damage can be repaired using transplanted bone marrow stem cells. But it seems that the stem...
A substance often found in plastic food containers could damage the genetic material of egg cells, according to a new study by a group of US researchers. The scientists, based at the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, found that the chemical bisphenol A affected the number of chromosomes...
Panos Zavos, a fertility specialist who is the former partner of maverick Italian fertility doctor Severino Antinori, has announced that he has cloned the first human embryo for reproductive purposes, reports the UK's Sunday Times. Claims made by Clonaid that five clones have already been born have yet to be...
The UK Court of Appeal is deciding whether Raj and Shahana Hashmi, the British couple who want to use 'tissue typing' to have a child, will be allowed to continue in their attempts to do so. They are attempting to conceive a child who would be a possible cord blood...
The Biomics Centre for medical research opened at St George's Hospital Medical School in London last week. The new centre aims to bring together four new areas of biomedicine, to tackle diseases ranging from cancer to pneumonia. It claims to be the world's first purpose-built facility to bring together the...
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Anonymous gamete donation: some steps in the right direction
by Professor Eric Blyth
The dominant assumption in gamete donation that anonymity is both beneficial and necessary has begun to look less secure in recent years. For many donor-conceived people, parents of donor-conceived children, individual professionals involved in assisted conception, and at least some donors, the possible demise of anonymity is long overdue. Several...
Debating stem cells in Brussels
by Juliet Tizzard
This week, the European Parliament is due to vote on a Directive on setting standards of quality and safety for the donation, procurement, testing, processing, storage and distribution of human tissues and cells. It sounds like an inoffensive piece of legislation and it would have been just that - but for...