British researchers revealed last week that skin cells can be made to turn into neurones (nerve cells). The research, published in the July 10th edition of The Lancet, adds to the growing list of adult stem cell abilities and may lead to therapies for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and...
US researchers have identified a genetic variation in mice that affects levels of the 'feel-good' brain chemical serotonin. The study, published in the journal Science, could shed light on why some people are prone to depression and other mood disorders. The findings could also help explain why some patients respond...
Genetics services in six areas of the UK are set to receive £18 million of government funding to upgrade their laboratories, Health Minister Lord Warner has announced. The investment is part of a £50 million government initiative to incorporate new genetic technologies into healthcare, outlined in the Genetics White Paper...
A pressure group based in Switzerland says that a new national law could lead to discrimination against people with genetic disorders, the British Medical Journal reports. In June 2004, the Swiss parliament approved legislation that would allow insurance companies limited access to genetic test results. The new measures were designed...
Stem cells boost the recovery of damaged hearts, German researchers have found. A report, published in the journal The Lancet, reveals that stem cells taken from the bone marrow increase the efficiency of hearts that have been damaged by heart attacks. The way in which this works still remains unclear...
Raj and Shahana Hashmi, the couple who fought for the right to have a tissue-matched IVF baby to save the life of their son Zain, are stopping treatment after six unsuccessful attempts. The couple's doctors are now reluctant to continue because of Shahana's age (40), and because of the stressful...
The French Assemblee Nationale (parliament) has finally voted on new bioethics legislation, after more than two years of debate. The bill, designed to amend a previous law passed in July 1994, was first presented to France's Council of Ministers in June 2001, and was adopted by parliament after a first...
Restrictive Italian fertility laws, passed in February this year, have been shown to be 'mediaeval' and are again under debate, reports the British Medical Journal (BMJ). The law on IVF procedures requires that no more than three eggs can be fertilised at once, and that all eggs fertilised must be...
Performing gene therapy on mice can prevent the symptoms of a hereditary brain disease called spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA). This discovery, made by a research team from the University of Iowa, US, has prompted hopes of similar treatments for related brain disorders such as Huntington's and Alzheimer's. Unlike other gene therapy...
Teenage girls in the UK are asking for infertility treatment on the NHS because they have not become pregnant after up to two years of sexual activity without using contraceptives, a doctor says. Dr Jo Heaton, a fertility specialist working at a reproductive health clinic for the under-19s in...
Last week, in its monthly magazine, the Texas Medical Association (TMA) announced its support for human embryonic stem (ES) cell research and called for federal funding to be restored for new studies to fight disease. This may add to the 'pressure' on President Bush to relax his policy on such...
Terminally ill cancer patients from Europe and America are travelling to China to receive a new gene-based drug, the world's first commercially available gene therapy treatment. Chinese biotech firm SiBiono Genetech launched the drug in January, initially for the treatment of head and neck squamous cancers (a type of skin...
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Comment
Insurance, genetics and discrimination
by Simon Cox
In October 2001, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) put in place a moratorium preventing the use of genetic tests results by insurance companies. The ban was recommended by the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee and the Human Genetics Commission (HGC), and came after a MORI poll revealed...
When the law protects embryos but harms patients
by Juliet Tizzard
Just four months after a draconian IVF law came into force in Italy, Italian politicians are already coming under pressure to amend the legislation. The new Medically Assisted Reproduction Law, which came onto the Italian statute book in March, prohibits the destruction of embryos created outside the body. This means...