Cat cloning company is closing

By Laura Goodall: A US business specialising in cloning pets is closing its doors. Genetic Savings and Clone, a biotechnology company based at Sausalito in California, has announced to its customers that it will no longer be open for business at the end of this year. In letters to its...[Read More]

Stem cell trial for fatal childhood brain disorder is set to start

The first trial for a proposed stem cell treatment for Batten's disease is about to begin. Researchers at the Oregon Health and Science University's (OHSU) Doernbecher Children's Hospital, US, plan to treat six children with the rare neurodegenerative disorder by using fetal stem cell transplants. Children with...[Read More]

New genetic findings for cleft lip and palate development

A developmental gene has been found to provide a connection between several genes involved in the formation of a cleft lip and palate. Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts, US found that when the gene SUMO1 is under-expressed and does not...[Read More]

IVF embryos that have ceased developing can yield new stem cells

British researchers have established a new method of creating stem cells from naturally arrested, or 'dead', IVF embryos. In the journal Stem Cells, the scientists from Newcastle University demonstrated that they used five IVF embryos, that had arrested six to seven days after conception, to create embryonic...[Read More]

Obesity in men may link to infertility

A man's infertility could be directly linked to his body weight, a current American-based study reveals. Data from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) suggests that overweight men are significantly more likely to be infertile than normal-weight men, and that for every 20-pound body...[Read More]

Woman dies after routine IVF treatment

A British woman who had undergone a standard IVF procedure at the Leicester Royal Infirmary has died unexpectedly while undergoing another medical procedure. A coroner and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) is currently investigating the cause of death. During the egg collection operation for IVF...[Read More]