UK Health Secretary Alan Milburn announced plans last week for a national set of guidelines aimed at standardising the provision of fertility treatment available on the National Health Service (NHS). He will ask the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) to update and review existing guidelines produced by the Royal...
A team of US scientists has developed a new gene therapy treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a severe inherited muscle-wasting disease. The researchers successfully treated laboratory mice with the condition, stopping and even reversing its symptoms. The study, carried out at the University of Pittsburgh, was published in the...
A new survey looking at the attitudes of nearly 2000 UK residents towards science has found that while most are 'amazed' by science, half of them believe that scientists do not stop and think about the implications of their work. The report, published jointly by the UK government's Office of...
Scientists in New Zealand have identified a gene that may be involved in three quarters of cases of premature menopause in women under 25. The team, based at the University of Auckland, studied DNA samples taken from 43 women who underwent the menopause before the age of 40, and found...
Two new studies show that bone marrow could be used as a source of brain stem cells - 'master' cells that can replicate and grow into a variety of brain cell types. The findings mean that bone marrow transplants could eventually be used to treat brain injuries and illnesses such as...
The UK's Sanger Centre, which has decoded a third of the human genetic code, will soon begin work on the zebrafish genome. The results of the project, which is to be funded by the Wellcome Trust, will be made freely available. Earlier this year, some scientists were concerned that the...
A briefing paper for the Church of England's Board for Social Responsibility describes the use of cloned early embryo cells for research into disease treatments as 'morally acceptable', according to the Sunday Telegraph newspaper. The paper was written by Canon Dr John Polkinghorne, chair of the board's science and medical...
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Comment
Misconceptions in assisted conception debate
by Juliet Tizzard
A government announcement that discrepancies in funding for infertility treatment are to be ironed out was bound to cause media debate. News in this week's BioNews that the issue is to be referred to the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) didn't fail to provoke comment from a number columnists...