The first trial for a proposed stem cell treatment for Batten's disease is about to begin. Researchers at the Oregon Health and Science University's (OHSU) Doernbecher Children's Hospital, US, plan to treat six children with the rare neurodegenerative disorder by using fetal stem cell transplants. Children with...
UK Researchers have discovered a gene that helps combat multiple sclerosis (MS). The research, published early online in the journal Nature, found that the gene which puts a person at risk of MS, called DR2b, is partnered by another gene, DR2a, which tempers the effects of the...
US scientists have developed a new online tool for identifying people at risk of the most common form of hereditary colon cancer. The questionnaire, designed by researchers at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana-Faber Cancer Institute, aims to help doctors identify who should be offered...
New research published early online in the journal Nature Genetics rejects the previously suspected belief that adult stem cells are necessary for successful animal cloning. It shows that cells that have completely matured to a specific type can not only be used for cloning purposes, but may...
The Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed into law a bill that prevents both private and state-funded laboratories from paying women to donate eggs for human embryonic stem (ES) cell research. The Reproductive Health and Research Bill (SB1260), sponsored by state Senators Deborah Ortiz and...
US scientists have developed a new method of matching potentially effective drugs with diseases in a publicly accessible web based program known as the 'Connectivity Map'. The method relies on describing both drugs and diseases in a 'common language' of genomic signatures so that the two can...
Scotland's Roslin Institute is set to become part of Europe's first centre to sell useable human embryonic stem cells (ES cells0 for research. It will set up a new £2 million centre - the Roslin Cells Centre (RCC) - which will be based in Midlothian and will market the...
Researchers have found that women who continue to exercise while they are trying to conceive using IVF may reduce their chances of conception. The research, published in the October issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, found that women who regularly exercised for more than four hours...
BioNews, published by the Progress Educational Trust (PET), provides news and comment on genetics, assisted conception, embryo/stem cell research and related areas.
Comment
Behavioural genetics and risk of 'criminality'
by Dr Mairi Levitt
We're not arguing that genes made him do it but if violent behaviour is genetic then it is probably treatable'. This comment by a US lawyer on behalf of his client (who was eventually executed for murder last year) sums up the hope invested in research into violent and antisocial...