The first coherent US legislation prohibiting genetic discrimination could be law within months. The House of Representatives has passed the Genetic Information Non-discrimination Act (GINA), which will prevent the public from being disadvantaged on the basis of their DNA. The bill will now progress to the Senate...
A new drug is being trialled in humans which has been able to cure Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) in mice with symptoms of the disease. The drug, named PTC124, has been developed by scientists working at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and Pennsylvania University Medical School...
By MacKenna Roberts: The European Commission has passed rules on new medical treatments, rejecting all ethical amendments after bitter discord, caused primarily by the inclusion of potential treatments involving human embryonic stem (ES) cells and human-animal hybrid embryos under the European Union (EU) regulatory banner. The Advanced Therapies Regulation aims...
UK doctors are applying for permission to help two couples avoid passing on hereditary breast cancer to their children. Paul Serhal, of University College London, has submitted a licence application to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to select embryos free from the BRCA1 gene...
The UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has launched a public consultation on whether research using human-animal hybrid embryos should be allowed. A public meeting is planned in June, at which interested parties, scientists and members of the public can discuss the issue, and a survey...
A series of newly released studies have made major inroads into the understanding of the genetic basis of type 2 adult onset diabetes. Four teams of researchers, from a mixture of academic and private institutions in the UK, America and Iceland, have uncovered seven genes thought to...
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Is there a right not to be a parent?
by Professor Anna Smajdor
On 10 April 2007, Natallie Evans lost the final stage of a four year legal battle for the right to implant embryos created with her eggs and the sperm of her former partner. Ms Evans had been diagnosed with cancer, and treatment necessitated the removal of her ovaries, leaving her...