The genome of an Irish man has been fully sequenced for the first time, and reveals a unique 'Irish genetic signature'. Professor Brendan Loftus from the Conway Institute at University College Dublin, who led the study, hopes that the findings will contribute to the understanding of genetic diversity...
Two new genetic mutations associated with the aggressive cancer, ovarian clear cell carcinoma, have been identified by two independent studies. The mutations - in genes ARID1A and PPP2R1A - shed light on how clear cell tumours may arise and potentially provide potential new drug targets...
A group of international researchers have become the first to link the cumulative effects of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) in genes responsible for the production of oestrogen, to a woman's risk of developing common breast and uterine cancers....
Infertility in women is often linked to obesity. A new study published in Cell Metabolism suggests that insulin signalling in the pituitary gland could play a key role....
British women are prepared to spend an average of 15,000 in order to conceive, a survey has shown, with one in ten willing to spend over 50,000 on fertility treatment...
A new technology used by Hull IVF unit to prevent clinical mix-ups when sperm and eggs are combined in the laboratory is to be rolled-out for use across the UK, and has been nominated for an award...
Two new studies have revealed further evidence of the harmful effect of smoking on both male and female fertility...
Two men in the UK have been prosecuted for allegedly offering sperm for sale over the internet, according to BBC News. Ricky Gage, 49, and Nigel Woodforth, 42, both from Reading, are facing two charges brought under the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 for operating a website known as Fertility 1st without a licence...
A conservative health think tank has criticised the NHS for spending an estimated 700 pounds of public funds per year on pornography. Roughly one in three of the 92 NHS hospitals with fertility clinics surveyed by 2020health.org provide pornographic material to male donors to help them produce a sperm sample...
Tendency to engage in voluntary exercise is heritable in mice according to a new study published in Proceedings of the Royal Society. US Scientists found that mice that exhibited high running levels, which were then selected for breeding, also produced offspring that were high runners, suggesting this was an inherited characteristic...
A federal appeals court in the US has ruled that federal funding for embryonic stem cell research may continue and an injunction placed on the funding by a lower court last month is temporarily suspended...
I'll admit right from the start that I'm a bit of a waste of time when it comes to science: I dropped most of it at 14 in favour of Latin, and the remainder of my school science was taught by an ageing physicist who spent most of the following 18 months telling a very involved shaggy-dog story about an octopus and some bagpipes...
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Comment
Is the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority fit for purpose?
by Professor David Jones
In the early 1980s many people both inside and outside Parliament were seeking to prohibit experimentation on human embryos. In response, the government convened a committee of enquiry, aiming by that means to circumvent the possibility of a ban. The Warnock Report duly concluded that 'the embryo of the human species should be afforded some protection in law'. The committee was in favour of research involving the destruction of human embryos but...
Study war no more: Science, politics and the battle over US government funding for embryonic stem cell research
by Dr Megan Allyse
Have you ever played the children's game Red Light/Green Light? Someone yells 'green light!' and everyone runs as fast as they can (some in circles, but that's not against the rules). When they yell 'red light!', everyone freezes in some contorted position. Playing Red Light/Green Light seems not unlike the experience of conducting embryonic stem cell research in the United States...