New research published in the journal Nature describes how a single cell taken from an IVF embryo, using a technique similar to pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), can be used to create embryonic stem (ES) cell lines. The new method leaves the embryo otherwise intact and able, in...
A gene variant more common in black women than those of European descent has been identified as contributing to increased risk of premature birth. Rates of premature birth are two to three times higher amongst black women than other racial groups, with an increased risk of 'premature...
New research by scientists at Manchester University, UK, has shed further light on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). The research has found that babies with particular variants of three genes are up to 14 times more likely to succumb to the condition. The researchers, led by Dr...
Five Premiership footballers in the UK are reported to have frozen their babies' stem cells, taken from the umbilical cord at birth, for possible future use, according to reports in the UK's Sunday Times newspaper and other sources. The cells have been stored with Liverpool-based CryoGenesis International...
The UK Government has announced that the sale of fresh sperm over the Internet is to be banned, following fears over the safety and suitability of the sperm, as raised in a consultation of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE)Act 1990. Internet sites are currently charging...
A baby girl has been born using the sperm her father froze 17 years ago before battling against cancer. Emmanuel Iyoha told the Daily Mirror that he 'didn't want to bother saving sperm. I just wanted to concentrate on getting better', but a nurse had persuaded him...
A group of British scientists, medical researchers and funding organisations has written an open letter to the Times newspaper, saying that patients should be warned that some stem cell therapies being offered by clinics are not 'wonder cures'. Many of the therapies available - at home and...
Researchers in Belgium have linked fault in a specific gene to age-related hearing loss. Changes in a gene called KCNQ4 are responsible for some hearing loss in the elderly, according to the researchers. Hearing loss has often been thought of as an age-related process - linked to exposure to noise over...
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The Lanza Protocol: Damned with very faint praise
by Josephine Quintavalle
The news last week that Robert Lanza's team at Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) had developed a compromise way of creating embryonic stem (ES) cells from human embryos, without killing them, brought a temporary cease-fire to the battle surrounding this contentious area of stem cell research. The international media was excited...
Regulating preimplantation diagnosis in New Zealand
by Professor Mark Henaghan
Choosing Genes for Future Children: Regulating Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), is the first major report from the three-year multidisciplinary project which draws together a team of New Zealand and international researchers in Law, Bioethics, Science, Maori and Paediatrics to examine whether, how and to what extent, human genome-based technologies should...