Carrying out genetic tests on embryos has no effect on the health of the resulting babies, according to new findings reported at the annual meeting of the European Society of Human Genetics. The researchers, based at Brussels' Free University, followed up over 500 babies born following...
Research into a new embryo transfer procedure has shown that many women having IVF could be treated with a single embryo without lowering their chance of conceiving a child. Yacoub Khalaf, of Guy's Hospital London, led the study into a new implantation technique, which involves growing embryos...
The universally accepted maxim that genes are transcribed into RNA and subsequently translated into proteins, a concept that has underwritten huge swathes of research in the last 40 years, has been significantly muddied. A groundbreaking Nature paper has shown the road from genome to protein is much...
Results from an Icelandic study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, provide further evidence for the link between BRCA2 gene mutations and prostate cancer. Researchers from the Icelandic Cancer Registry in Reykjavik showed that one particular BRCA2 mutation, 999del5, was present in 1 in...
A new US study has shown that following neural stem cell injections, primates with severe Parkinson's disease show temporary recovery of their ability to stand, walk, feed and generally coordinate movement. Although the results are promising, it will be years before the therapeutic value for humans is...
The UK's Academy of Medical Sciences has backed the creation of human-animal embryos for use in stem cell research, which is says should be subject to the same rules as research on human embryos, including the 14-day rule and a ban on implanting embryos into a...
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Comment
Regulating IVF and embryo research: Balancing clarity with flexibility
by James Lawford Davies
I will miss the UK's Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) 1990 Act when it is gone. I am no great supporter of our regulatory model and the 1990 Act is flawed and idiosyncratic. However, if you are going to regulate IVF and embryo research, ours is a reasonably solid regulatory...