Scientists working on an inherited skin disorder have identified the mutated gene involved, a discovery which they say will help shed light on eczema, and some cases of asthma. The study, published in the journal Nature Genetics, shows that people affected by the condition ichthyosis vulgaris have a faulty version...
In BioNews 349, we published a commentary on the proposed new Spanish law on assisted reproduction, by Anna Veiga of the Centre for Regenerative Medicine, Barcelona, Spain. Due to an editing error, we may have given the impression that the new legislation will permit the creation of embryos for research...
A New Zealand genetics professor has outraged gay rights activists by claiming that a 'gay gene' could be passed on to offspring of gay sperm donors and, therefore, that recipients of sperm from sperm banks should be warned if it came from a gay man. Professor Frank Sin, of Canterbury...
Culturing embryos to the blastocyst stage in the laboratory could increase the success rate of IVF treatment involving the transfer of a single embryo, Belgian doctors report. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that in women under 36, transferring a single five-day-old embryo results in...
Following discussions earlier this week, European Union (EU) research ministers have failed to find a majority opinion on how human embryonic stem cell (ES cell) research should be funded under the Seventh EU Research Framework Programme 2007-2013 (FP7). Because of the lack of agreement among member states, the EU will...
A project to collect DNA samples and medical information from half a million Britons was launched this week, after years of planning. The UK Biobank, hosted at the University of Manchester, eventually wants to recruit up to 500,000 volunteers aged between 40-69 years. Initially, 3000 people living in the...
UK researchers have linked variations in a key brain chemical gene to the ease with which a person will become addicted to cocaine. The team, based at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London, says that although everyone who repeatedly takes cocaine will eventually become addicted, different versions of the...
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Comment
Dolly row sheds light on normal science
by Dr Jess Buxton
Last week saw a flurry of newspaper reports covering another supposed scandal in the world of cloning research. No, this wasn't another chapter in the ongoing saga of Woo Suk Hwang's fabricated cloned human embryonic stem (ES) cells, but a story about the most famous clone in world: Dolly the...