Human embryonic stem cells created via cloning

Embryonic stem cells have been created from human skin cells for the first time by US scientists using a cloning technique... [Read More]

Book Review: Families - Beyond the Nuclear Ideal

'Families: Beyond the nuclear ideal' discusses various 'alternative' family forms in Western societies, examining the arguments behind the celebration and criticism of specific types of family that depart from the norm... [Read More]

Radio Review: The Life Scientific - Professor Sir John Gurdon

Shortly after being awarded the 2012 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine, Professor Sir John Gurdon was interviewed for the BBC Radio 4 programme 'The Life Scientific'... [Read More]

Event Review: Have Your Say on Mitochondria Replacement (Manchester)

Under the law as it stands in the UK, only 'permitted' embryos may be implanted into a woman. Permitted embryos are those that have not been genetically modified, and are not formed from genetically modified gametes... [Read More]

What Gurdon and Yamanaka's Nobel Prize means to the stem cell community

It took 50 years for the Nobel committee to acknowledge one of the key developments in biology... [Read More]

Professors Gurdon and Yamanaka awarded Nobel Prize for work on stem cells

Professor Sir John Gurdon of the University of Cambridge has been jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on stem cells. He shares the prize for medicine or physiology with Professor Shinya Yamanaka from Japan... [Read More]

Theatre Review: A Number

A Number is about identity, ownership, the desire for a second chance and - here's the science hook - reproductive cloning. This tenth anniversary reading of Caryl Churchill's play was followed by a discussion panel... [Read More]

Radio Review: The Reunion - Dolly the Sheep

In February 1997, sheep 6LL3 made global front page news. Better known as 'Dolly', she was the first mammal successfully cloned from an adult cell... [Read More]

The House of Lords inquiry into regenerative medicine: mapping the UK route for the commercialisation of cell therapies

The UK House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee has launched an inquiry into cell therapy and regenerative medicine to take place this autumn... [Read More]

The far-stretching reach of Mississippi's personhood amendment

On 8 November the Mississippi electorate voted against an amendment to the Bill of Rights in their state Constitution which would have redefined life as beginning at the moment of fertilisation – the so-called 'personhood amendment' (Proposition 26)... [Read More]

An embryo is not a person say Mississippi voters

Voters in the US state of Mississippi have voted against a proposed constitutional amendment that would have defined life as beginning at fertilisation. The proposed amendment would have afforded embryos and fetuses – whether conceived naturally or artificially - similar legal protection as that covering all US citizens but was rejected by over 55 per cent of voters on 8 November... [Read More]

Event Review: Playing God - Who Should Regulate Reproductive Medicine?

Should women who choose their career first, and children second, be allowed to receive IVF on the NHS at an age when some would consider it 'unnatural'? Now ask whether it's acceptable for young soldiers fighting in Afghanistan to store their sperm in case they don't come back. And the questions surrounding reproductive medicine don't end there: after insemination, how much screening or manipulation of genetic material is reasonable?... [Read More]

Breakthrough in stem cell research - world's first reprogrammed adult cell

US scientists have for the first time created 'personalised' human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) using a form of cloning. The result is a significant milestone on the route to using stem cell-based therapies but the researchers stress more work is to be done as genetic errors in the cells means they are not yet suitable for therapeutic use.... [Read More]

Comic Review: How to Have a Baby - The Comic Book for Infertile Couples

The 744-page book covers the causes of infertility, imaging techniques, assisted reproductive techniques, surrogacy, donor gametes and adoption... [Read More]

Film Review: Stem Cell Revolutions - A Vision of the Future

The short film 'Stem Cell Revolutions: A Vision of the Future' uses interviews to document how stem cells have 'vitally changed our understanding of the human body'. The film opens with a voiceover by the film's celebrity commentator novelist Margaret Atwood: 'Sometimes it seems stem cells are proposed as the answer to everything... What can't they do?'... [Read More]

Book Review: Biotechnology and Cloning

'Biotechnology and Cloning' is part of a series of educational books for teenagers addressing 'contemporary social issues'. It is an unusual concept, being neither a textbook nor a revision guide. It does not directly explain the underlying science, but outlines and encourages the reader to think around the topics.... [Read More]

Book Review: Human Cloning in the Media

Science's journey from fiction into reality is an adventurous ride. So I began to read 'Human Cloning in the Media', a book about how cloning is making this trip, with high expectations. The book examines 'the making of technoscience, the making (and policing) of an international scientific community and the making of publics who can appropriately engage with this technoscience'... [Read More]

HFEA asks scientists for advice on mitochondrial disease treatment

Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley has asked the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to convene an expert group 'to assess the effectiveness and safety' of a fertility treatment that would enable children to be born without potentially devastating, incurable mitochondrial diseases.

Film Review: Never Let Me Go

Starring Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley, Never Let Me Go is the film adaptation of the Booker Prize-nominated novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. The film is narrated by Kathy H (Carey Mulligan) who begins by reminiscing about her childhood at Halisham, a school for 'special pupils'. The audience is taken on a journey with Kathy as she remembers her experiences at Hailsham and her life after she leaves the school... [Read More]

Radio Review: Britain's Labs: Stem Cells

BBC Radio 4's Stem cells provides a valuable insight into the current focus and prioritisation of stem cell research in the UK, which has received international support since US president, Barack Obama, put an end to the ban on the use of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research in the US... [Read More]