A new study has brought more bad news for federally-funded US stem cell researchers. Dr Arjit Varki and colleagues from the University of California, San Diego, and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, say that all the human embryonic stem (ES) cell lines currently approved for use by state researchers...
China and other eastern nations are set to become world leaders in stem cell research, say scientists who took part in a study for the UK's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). In a report published today, the DTI describes the stem cell science taking place in China, Singapore and...
A UK couple whose only daughter died following a bonfire accident have abandoned their attempts to have a baby girl using embryo sex selection. Alan and Louise Masterton applied to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) for permission to use preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to choose their baby's sex...
Mutations in a gene involved in familial Parkinson's disease (PD) could be responsible for one in 25 cases of PD worldwide, new research shows. Three studies published in the Lancet have pinpointed a mutation in the LRRK2 gene that could cause around five per cent of inherited cases of PD...
Australian doctors have used preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) to ensure that a baby shared a rhesus negative blood group with its mother. The team, based at the University of Sydney, used the technique to avoid the risk of rhesus disease, caused when the blood of a rhesus-positive baby triggers an...
Women who inherit a 'flipped' version of a section of DNA are likely to have more children than those who inherit the standard version, Icelandic researchers say. The 'H2 inversion', discovered by scientists at Reykjavik-based biotech firm DeCode Genetics, is common in Europeans, quite rare in Africans and virtually absent...
The UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has announced plans to speed up the licensing of embryo tests for some genetic conditions. Currently, preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is approved on a case by case basis, even for tests that are already being carried out elsewhere in the country. Under...
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Licensing PGD: a step in the right direction
by Dr Jess Buxton
The lengthy process of applying for a licence to carry out preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) in the UK is set to get slightly easier - at least for some diseases. PGD was first used in 1989, to select a female embryo that would be free from the severe inherited, sex-linked disorder...