People with the same surname may share a common male ancestor, according to a study published in the American Journal of Human Genetics last week. Professor Bryan Sykes, of Oxford University, looked at Y-chromosome DNA from 60 men who were also called Sykes. To his surprise, over half shared a...
The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has published a discussion paper recommending changes in UK regulations, which would allow research into stem cells derived from embryos. It also recommended lifting the ban on research into therapeutic cloning - the potential treatment of human diseases using tissues derived from cloned early embryos. Embryo...
A team of researchers based at Monash University in Melbourne and the National University of Singapore has managed to grow primitive muscle and nerve cells from human embryo stem (ES) cells in the laboratory. 'We are the first to show you can do that in a controlled fashion' said Dr...
A team of US researchers has shown that Viagra, the anti-impotence drug, may help some women overcome their fertility problems. Geoffry Sher, of the Sher Institute for Reproductive Medicine, Las Vegas, gave the drug to four women who had failed to become pregnant following at least three in vitro fertilisation...
US firm Celera Genomics claimed last week that it has finished sequencing 99 per cent of the human genome, and is now putting the information together in a meaningful order. The announcement follows a statement last week from the publicly-funded Human Genome Project, which aims to publish a rough draft...
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Comment
Cloning research should not be dictated by moral minorities
by Juliet Tizzard
Cloning is back in news. This time, press attention was sparked by leaked information that a government advisory panel is about to recommend human cloning for therapeutic purposes and by a report published by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics recommending the same. It seems that as more and more respected...