Sir Alasdair Breckenridge has been appointed as Chair of the Government's new advisory body on the implications of developments in bioscience, the Emerging Science and Bioethics Advisory Committee (ESBAC)....
For mice at least, probiotic yoghurt could be the secret behind staying slim and 'sexy'. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US came to this conclusion after a study to evaluate the effect of yoghurt on age-related weight gain...
The world's first stem cell drug has been approved by Canadian authorities. US biotech company, Osiris Therapeutics, has been given the go-ahead to market its drug, Prochymal, for the treatment of graft-versus-host-disease (GvHD) in children who fail to respond to steroids....
A London-based IVF clinic has received an investment from a private equity firm to open more fertility clinics in the UK and abroad....
Rare genetic variants - those carried by fewer than five in 1,000 people - are much more common than previously thought, according to two studies published in Science...
The emergence and spread of MRSA in the UK has been tracked thanks to genetic analysis of samples taken from infected patients over a 53-year period. The study, published in the journal PNAS, suggests that hospitals in large cities act as breeding grounds for new, increasingly resistant MRSA variants...
The genetic landscape of breast cancer is much more complicated than previously hoped, according to the authors of two analyses of multiple tumour genomes...
Exposure to low levels of environmental toxins may reduce male sperm counts, research in sheep suggests...
A senior IVF doctor has voiced concerns over health risks to women in IVF treatments that are commonly practiced by UK clinics...
These seven short films provide little more than a string of provocative quotations, which do little in themselves to foster a good debate of a complex issue. While all the speakers' opinions and experiences provide a range of views on the issues raised by genetic screening, there is a clear lack of consistency in some of the arguments. The question posed in the title loosely runs throughout but the films lack collective coherency with little linkage between them....
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Comment
BioNews survey 2012: The results
by Dr Jess Buxton
A huge thank-you to the 700 readers who took the time to complete our survey earlier this year. As with previous surveys, the results will be invaluable for the future development of BioNews, to ensure it continues to meet the needs of our readers...
The Daily Mail has got Altrui and egg donation wrong
by Alison Bagshawe
A recent article in the Daily Mail about Altrui's information campaign towards students at Cambridge University typifies popular press reporting at its worst and exemplifies some recurring myths about egg donation...