US researchers have managed to grow mouse sperm stem cells in the laboratory. They have also transplanted these cells into infertile mice, which have then produced mature sperm and fathered offspring. The scientists, based at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, say their achievement opens up research into...
Doctors at Leiden University Hospital in the Netherlands have announced success in fertility preservation. They have successfully transplanted a woman's whole ovary into her arm in order to save her fertility while she undergoes cancer treatment. The operation took place two years ago but the details are only just about...
The Spanish government has now formally approved a decree clarifying the country's laws on human embryonic stem (ES) cell research. The Spanish government passed legislation on assisted reproduction and embryo research in October 2003, but did not specify the mechanisms that would allow Spanish scientists to undertake research projects. Speaking...
Canadian scientists have managed to clone fruit flies, an achievement that could help to improve the cloning process in other animals. Using current techniques, most clones die before birth, probably because their genetic information is not properly 'reprogrammed'. Experiments with fruit flies might reveal the genes that are important in...
The identification of a single brain protein that controls nicotine addiction could pave the way for new drugs to help people give up smoking, US researchers say. Scientists at the California Institute of Technology bred mice with an altered version of a single gene, which makes the animals hypersensitive to...
A new drug for heart disease, which its manufacturers say is particularly effective in African-American people, has sparked a debate on genetics, medicine and 'race'. Researchers at the University of Minnesota halted a clinical trial for BiDil, because the evidence for the drug's effectiveness was 'so compelling' that the scientists...
Around a fifth of all cases of bowel cancer are triggered by the combined effect of rare variations in many different genes, UK researchers say. A new study shows that 20 per cent of bowel cancer patients develop the disease because they inherit several different gene mutations. The Cancer Research...
Voters in the US state of California have passed Proposition 71, a bill also known as the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative. Fifty-nine per cent of people voted in favour, with 41 per cent voting against the measure, which will establish California as the first state to publicly...
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California and stem cells: not all news from the US is bad
by Professor Kirsty Horsey
Last week, US voters handed George W Bush a second term as president. Exit polls showed that one of the reasons he was re-elected - although the result was close, Kerry winning 49 per cent of votes - was his commitment to 'moral values'. This, presumably, includes not only abortion and gay...