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Image by K Hardy via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human embryo at the blastocyst stage (about six days after fertilisation) 'hatching' out of the zona pellucida.

News

14 September 2009 • 2 minutes read

Experts call for crackdown on 'stem cell tourism'

Chinese and European experts have jointly issued guidance calling for countries to tighten regulation of experimental stem cell therapies in an effort to deter the rise in so-called ‘stem cell tourism'. The experts identified concerns that certain countries allow stem cell trials and therapeutics to be marketed prematurely without having been adequately clinically tested for safety and efficacy. The ten multidisciplinary specialists in law, ethics, political science and social s...

Image by Dr Christina Weis. © Christina Weis

News

14 September 2009 • 2 minutes read

Revised rules allow couples to store embryos for longer

by Dr Antony Starza-Allen

The UK Government has introduced changes to allow individuals whose embryos have been frozen for over five years before the Human Fertilisation and Embryology (HFE) Act 2008 comes into force on 1 October 2009 to store them for longer. Before the changes were made, the Act stipulated that such embryos must be destroyed, but Health Minister Gillian Merron stepped in to make a supplementary provision to the Act to extend the time limit for storage to a total of ten years....

Image by Alan Handyside via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a human egg soon after fertilisation, with the two parental pronuclei clearly visible.

News

14 September 2009 • 2 minutes read

IVF couples must undergo police checks under new Australian law

by Nisha Satkunarajah

New legislation introduced by the Victorian government in Australia, which requires all prospective IVF patients to have criminal background checks to ensure they have no previous history of violent or sexual crimes, has outraged patients and clinicians alike.The Assisted Reproduction Treatment Act, passed in December 2008, which also enables single women and lesbian couples to receive IVF treatment, was introduced after recommendations were made from the Victorian Law Reform Commission. The ...

Image by Peter Artymiuk via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts the shadow of a DNA double helix, on a background that shows the fluorescent banding of the sequencing output from an automated DNA sequencing machine.

News

14 September 2009 • 1 minute read

Patients put off genetic testing over insurance fears, study shows

by Rosie Beauchamp

A study published in the Medical Journal of Australia indicates that up to 50 per cent of Australians could be refusing genetic tests due to the fear that the test outcomes will result in increased health insurance premiums or refusal to insure them altogether. In Australia, genetic information does not inform health insurance. However, it may affect insurance policies that cover trauma, disability, sickness and accidents. Applicants for such health insurance policies have a statutory duty to...

News

14 September 2009 • 2 minutes read

Gene knockout prevents obesity in mice

by Dr Will Fletcher

Mice that have been engineered to lack a gene called IKKE are protected from obesity, new research has found. IKKE, a normal immune system gene, appears to act as the main control centre for obesity in the laboratory mice and when it is successfully blocked the animals remained thin even when fed a diet high in fat. The researchers, from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, US, do not know whether IKKE is linked to obesity in humans but have speculated that, if it is, new trea...

Image by Sílvia Ferreira, Cristina Lopo and Eileen Gentleman via the Wellcome Collection. Depicts a single human stem cell embedded within a porous hydrogel matrix (false-coloured cryogenic scanning electron micrograph).

News

14 September 2009 • 2 minutes read

Cells from fat and moles re-programmed to make stem cells

by Dr Charlotte Maden

Two groups of US scientists have found new ways of obtaining adult stem cellsfrom fat and moles, using method that are quicker and more efficient than deriving them from skin cells. The work is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences....

News

14 September 2009 • 2 minutes read

Females lacking second X-chromosome may have started life 'male'

by Lorna Stewart

Turner Syndrome, a condition in which women have only one X chromosome instead of two, may be caused by a missing Y chromosome instead of a missing X as previously thought. Research published in Cell at the start of this month suggests that disruption in the Y chromosome can cause a range of male sex disorders including, surprisingly, Turner Syndrome which has always previously been considered a female sex disorder....

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HPV infection can affect sperm

Mitochondrial DNA insertions are common in human brain

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