Stem cell scientists in Britain will receive a £16.5 million cash boost, UK research councils announced last week. Universities across the country will receive a total of 57 different grants, with the aim of making the UK a world leader in stem cell research. Sheffield University scientists will get the...
Genetically speaking, chimps and humans differ more than expected, say a team of researchers who have just completed the first detailed analysis of a chimp chromosome. The new study of chimp chromosome 22, published in Nature, reveals surprising differences between human genes and those of our closest animal relative. Scientists...
A number of scientists and others will lobby members of the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) at a scientific conference on Wednesday, in favour of human cloning for embryonic stem (ES) cell research. They hope to break a 'diplomatic deadlock' over whether an international treaty banning human reproductive...
A growth-stimulating gene treatment can dramatically improve the symptoms of mice with amytrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Belgian and UK researchers report. Scientists at the biotech firm Oxford BioMedica and the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) found that a single injection of a therapeutic gene increased the life expectancy of...
Unusual hair patterns are influenced by the aptly-named frizzled 6 gene, US researchers report. They found that mice lacking the gene have strange hair patterns, growing in swirls and tufts instead of all pointing in the same direction. The human version of the gene is probably responsible for cowlicks and...
A bull cloned from the clone of a prize-winning animal four years ago is healthy and fertile, Japanese researchers announced last week. The second generation clone was created using a skin cell, taken from a first generation clone when the animal was only four months old. The research, published in...
The state Senate of Louisiana, US, has voted 29-8 in favour of legislation (bill SB 873) that would ban human cloning for both reproductive and research purposes, and impose criminal penalties of up to 10 years in prison and a $10 million fine. The vote comes only a week...
Scientists in the UK have reported the birth of a healthy baby boy born to a father whose sperm was frozen for 21 years. The man had undergone treatment for testicular cancer at the age of 17, which made him sterile. The researchers, from St Mary's Hospital and Christie Hospital...
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Banking on frozen sperm
by Dr Jess Buxton
Last week's news that a healthy baby boy was conceived using sperm frozen 21 years earlier triggered a flurry of front page news stories. Rather confusingly, several referred to the infant, born in 2002, as the '21-year-old baby', with one newspaper cartoon showing a newborn baby setting off for...