Issue 024 (06 September 1999)

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Do GM mice raise the spectre of designer babies?

06 September 1999 - by Professor Marcus Pembrey

The short answer is no! 'GENETIC SUPER BABIES STORM: key discovery raises spectre of designer children with high IQs' is how the Daily Mail announced the report of enhanced learning and memory in mice with over-expressed NMDA 2B receptors, the lead story in BioNews this week. A few weeks back...[Read More]

Gay couple to be fathers of twins

06 September 1999 - by BioNews

A millionaire gay couple have been condemned for fathering twins using in vitro fertilisation and a surrogate mother from the US. Barrie Drewitt, 30, and Tony Barlow, 35, have spent £200,000 to bypass UK laws and become biological fathers when the surrogate gives birth to a boy and a girl...[Read More]

Clever mice

06 September 1999 - by BioNews

Changing a single gene is enough to improve learning and memory, US scientists report in the journal Nature. Neurobiologist Joe Tsien, in collaboration with researchers at MIT and Washington University, found that adding a single gene to mice significantly boosted the animals' ability to solve maze tasks, learn from objects...[Read More]

Endorsement for US federal funding of stem cell research

06 September 1999 - by BioNews

The US federal government should fund research using human embryonic stem cells but funding should not extend to the derivation of these cell from embryos left over from fertility clinics, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Institute for Civil Society. The two groups...[Read More]

Dolly not a perfect clone

06 September 1999 - by BioNews

Genetic analysis of Dolly the sheep's cells has revealed that the genes in her mitochondria - the powerhouses of cells - have come from another sheep involved in the cloning experiment. In the cloning technique of cell nucleus replacement, a donor cell nucleus is fused with a donor egg stripped of its...[Read More]

Genetic basis for dyslexia

06 September 1999 - by BioNews

A gene for dyslexia has been mapped by an international team of researchers based in Norway, Belgium and the US. Reporting in the Journal of Medical Genetics, the researchers emphasise that the discovery indicates that dyslexia manifests differently among those who inherit the gene for it. The new gene - DYX3...[Read More]