Confusion over results obtained through a national screening programme for cystic fibrosis (CF) in the US may have lead to some women having unnecessary prenatal tests, according to a report in New Scientist. At a recent conference, the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) warned delegates that some genetic tests...
UK scientists have discovered that alterations in a single gene could increase the risk of several autoimmune disorders, including Type 1 diabetes, Graves disease and autoimmune hypothyroidism. The researchers, based at the Universities of Cambridge and Birmingham in the UK, published their findings in the journal Nature online. Autoimmune disorders...
US scientists have managed to grow egg cells from early mouse embryo cells, an achievement that has implications for research into stem cell therapies and infertility. The researchers, based at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, found that embryo cells grown in the laboratory could be coaxed into making eggs...
Italian scientists have proved that pollution from road traffic affects male fertility. A study, undertaken by scientists from the University of Naples, looked at young and middle-aged male attendants at motorway toll stations and found decreased sperm quality. Dr Michele De Rosa compared the semen quality of 85 men who...
Scientists have confirmed that gene therapy treatment was the cause of leukaemia-like symptoms in two boys who underwent treatment for X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency disease (X-SCID) at the Necker Hospital in Paris. In May 2000, the hospital first reported successes using gene therapy to treat X-SCID, a single-gene disorder affecting...
More US states have been debating how to regulate human cloning and related research. Last Thursday, a hearing took place before three legislative committees in Massachusetts on a bill that would ban human reproductive cloning - currently not explicitly banned in the state - but 'give a government seal of approval' to...
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Screening for cystic fibrosis
by Juliet Tizzard
This week's BioNews reports on cystic fibrosis antenatal screening programmes in the United States in which some pregnant women may have been given the wrong information about their chance of having a baby with the condition. Some antenatal tests were carried out unnecessarily and, according to the American College of...
Genetics needs to go back in its box
by Dr John Gillott
Anniversaries are arbitrary things, but on this 50 anniversary of the discovery of the structure of DNA by Watson and Crick, we have, by design as much as coincidence, something else to celebrate: 'The completion of a high-quality, comprehensive sequence of the human genome... The genomic era is now a...