The UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) - the body that regulates and monitors clinics carrying out assisted conception treatment and human embryo research in the UK - has granted a human embryonic stem (ES) cell research licence to the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland. The centre, which is famous for...
The UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has established a new procedure for fertility clinics to report mistakes. The principal tasks of the authority are to license and monitor clinics that carry out in vitro fertilisation (IVF), donor insemination (DI) and human embryo research. It also regulates the storage...
Scientists at Kyoto University have reported that they have created Japan's first human embryonic stem (ES) cell line. They did so by removing and culturing cells from donated human embryos left over from fertility treatments. The research team created an ES cell line from about 10 cells taken from a...
It is still not known whether European funds will become available to allow researchers to create new human embryonic stem (ES) cell lines. At a meeting of the governing bodies of the European Union (EU) - the European Commission (EC), European Parliament (EP) and Council of Europe - in April, the three...
Around 75 per cent of people asked about the cloning of embryos for medical research purposes were not aware that this type of work is now permitted in the UK, a recent survey found. However, over 60 per cent knew that the main aim of stem cell research is to...
The winner of the sweepstake that asked genetics researchers to place bets on how many genes would be found in the final draft of the human genome sequence was announced last week. The most recent estimate, around 24,800 genes, is much lower than the 50-100,000 predicted some years ago...
A type of virus used to deliver genes to the body in gene therapy treatments could cause cell defects that may lead to cancer, according to a new US study. The findings, published in this month's Nature Genetics, follow news earlier this year that a second patient in a gene...
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Confusion over cloning
by Juliet Tizzard
It has just been announced that the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has granted a licence to the Roslin Institute in Scotland to derive stem cells from human embryos. This is a first for the Institute which has, until now, concentrated its efforts on farm animals. Roslin's intentions to start...