Writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Dr Boris Pasche and team at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, US, report an association between variations in a fat-cell hormone gene, and colorectal cancer. The study profiled ten single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs - point changes in DNA...
Researchers at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford University, UK, have identified a genetic variant that is linked to reading ability. The findings, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, implicate a gene that could also be involved in dyslexia. Dr Silvia Paracchini, lead...
Scientists at the University of Oxford, UK, believe they have identified the way in which embryos implant in the uterus, providing essential information which may be used in the future for infertility treatments and offering hope to thousands of infertile couples. Implantation of an embryo to the...
New laws to regulate assisted reproductive technology in India will be introduced to Parliament later this year. The text of the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Bill 2008 was published last week by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for public comment. The bill aims to regulate...
A study of 2000 men, conducted by Dr Anette Aggerholm and colleagues at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, has found no association between obesity and semen quality. The study, published in the journal Fertility and Sterility, involved taking blood and semen samples from all participants as well...
A genome-wide screen performed by Japanese scientists has uncovered a genetic variant linked to an increased risk for narcolepsy - a sleeping disorder marked by excessive daytime sleepiness, loss of muscle function and hallucinations. Researchers at the University of Tokyo compared the genome of 222 narcoleptic Japanese and...
The Australian Patent Office, IP Australia, are expected to grant a patent to internationally disgraced South Korean Scientist Hwang Woo-Suk for his human cloning technology which he fraudulently claimed led to false scientific achievements in 2005. Hwang is one of 18 researchers named on the patent application...
In BioNews 471 we published a story which used the term 'freezing' to describe a new embryo preservation technique known as 'vitrification'. It has been brought to our attention that 'freezing' is not an accurate description of the vitrification process, which in fact uses certain chemicals and processes to avoid...
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Comment
Dyslexia, genes and labels
by Dr Jess Buxton
This week, BioNews includes details of a study that has uncovered a possible genetic influence on reading ability. What exactly have the researchers found, and what does it mean for children with reading difficulties? And is it really the 'dyslexia gene', as it was called in some of the newspaper...
Egg sharing and cryopreservation - for whose benefit?
by Dr John Parsons
Nataly Atalla's uncritical advertorial 'freeze and share: an evolution of egg sharing' in BioNews 476 (week 15/9/2008 - 21/9/2008) did not address a number of important points. I would have expected some comment on the success rate of the vitrification technique in their hands. She cites 100,000...