A seven-year-old girl with a highly aggressive form of leukaemia may have been 'cured' by an experimental therapy that harnesses the body's immune system to seek out and destroy the disease....
The US biotechnology company Amgen will buy deCODE Genetics, which provides products and services for genome analysis, for $415 million...
Scientists have converted kidney cells from human urine into brain cells, bypassing the need for embryonic stem cells...
Homosexuality is inherited, not through genes, but through 'epi-markers', a study based around mathematical modelling suggests...
Genetic mutations are not the only contributing factor in the growth of cancerous tumours, say scientists...
The United States Senate has passed a bill that would allow veterans who have sustained damage to their reproductive organs during active service to have fertility treatment paid for...
Do we need more scientists in Parliament? The Society of Biology recently embarked on a series of public debates on science policy, launching with this probing question...
Stay up-to-date on all the latest developments in the fields of human fertility and genomics. And be the first to hear about upcoming events and other announcements.
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The mince pie problem
by Sarah Norcross
Someone who came to our event this week 'Giving: The Gamete Donor Perspective' very kindly brought some mince pies for us. She brought 30 mince pies. I gave two boxes away to stalwart volunteers. But this generous gift posed a problem...
German Brüstle decision puts spotlight on national patent guidelines
by Julian Hitchcock
In November the case of Brüstle v Greenpeace was remitted to the German Federal High Court. How would a national court interpret the controversial ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union which held that patent rights could not be granted in the EU for the use of any entity 'capable of commencing the process of development of a human being'?...
What's Your Poison? The Impact of Alcohol and Smoking
by Dr Antony Starza-Allen
The fourth session the Progress Educational Trust's annual conference 2012 'Fertility Treatment: A Life-Changing Event?' continued the day's critical perspective looking at the evidential basis for the impact of lifestyle factors on the outcome of fertility treatment and resulting children. This time it was the impact of alcohol and smoking that came under scrutiny...