NIH to lift moratorium on human—animal chimera research
The US National Institutes of Health is considering lifting a ban on the funding of research to create human-animal 'chimeras' and replacing it with an ethical review process...
News
Australia's oldest IVF mother has baby at 62
A 62-year-old Tasmanian woman has become Australia's oldest mother to conceive using IVF...
Australian clinics warned not to offer flat fees to donors
Fertility clinics in Australia have been warned not to offer flat fees to egg and sperm donors, reports the Sydney Morning Herald...
Women without an appendix or tonsils are more fertile
Women who have had their appendix or tonsils removed appear more likely to become pregnant and do so sooner, according to a study...
Crowd-sourced DNA links depression to 17 genes
Scientists have identified 17 genetic variants that appear to be linked to depression in individuals with European ancestry...
Gene testing in young patients may uncover 'cancer families'
More than half of patients with sarcoma, a rare cancer, have mutations that are known to increase the risk of other types of cancer...
Reviews
Image by Bill Sanderson via the Wellcome Collection, © Wellcome Trust Ltd 1990. Depicts Laocoön and his family (from Greek and Roman mythology) entwined in coils of DNA.
Book Review: The House of Hidden Mothers
Meera Syal explores commercial surrogacy in a story about the mismatches between Indian culture and Indian immigrants and their families in Britain...
Theatre Review: Half of Me
Half of Me is a play aimed at a young audience, and tells the story of children born through Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART)...
Comment
Blurred boundaries — the language of DNA
by Professor Marcus Pembrey
The general public have appropriated the term DNA to mean much more than just the molecule itself. This may not be a problem most of the time but, in the case of donor eggs and sperm in particular, it's important that people are clear on what genetics and epigenetics really tell us...