Progress Educational Trust conference: Making the grade

The third session of the Progress Educational Trust's annual conference 'The Best Possible Start in Life: The Robust and Responsive Embryo' boasted a redoubtable roll-call of eminent clinicians and researchers as speakers. This being the case, I couldn't help wondering if the decision to limit such luminaries to ten minutes apiece was a wise one...[Read More]

Single gene can make you appear more trustworthy

Variations in a single gene may have considerable impact on whether people come across as trustworthy and kind, scientists say. Furthermore, the snap judgments we make about people's kindness after only a brief contact may accurately correspond to whether or not they possess the more 'social' gene variant...[Read More]

Book Review: What's the Use of Race? Modern Governance and the Biology of Difference

The study of genetic diversity between ethnic groups can help explain the ways in which race influences our biology and susceptibility to disease. But what do we mean by 'race', exactly? These issues are considered in the collection of essays 'What's the use of race? Modern governance and the biology of difference', edited by Dr Ian Whitmarsh and Dr David Jones...[Read More]

Genome blueprint of mice helps understanding of human genetics

International researchers have mapped over 55 million genetic variations in the mouse genome in the hopes of better understanding human disease. The genomes of 17 strains of mice were analysed and variations in their DNA, called SNPs, were catalogued...[Read More]

TV Review: Horizon - The Nine Months That Made You

Forget 'you are what you eat'. Rather 'you are what your mother ate'. That is the dramatic message of the BBC's latest episode of Horizon 'The Nine Months That Made You', broadcast on Monday 22 August. The documentary was an account of the Barker Theory that birth weight determines health in later life...[Read More]

The certain scientist and the uncertain gene

Philosopher Langdon Winner rather poetically refers to scientific public engagement as 'technological somnambulism'. The image he invokes is that of a vast network of societal sleepwalking; interacting but not engaging. This is especially true within a biomedical context. Whenever an inventive entity creates novel technologies, he or she inspires and develops two important constructs. The first is the physical instrument, or perhaps something less concrete, such as an idea or methodology...[Read More]

Health disparities in the age of personalised medicine?

The intersection of racial categories and emerging genetic technology is bound to be vexed given - for example - the long history of eugenics and segregation in the United States. Although the topic has received little attention among the UK general public, pharmaceutical companies on both sides of the Atlantic are investing huge amounts of research and development into individually tailored drugs - pharmacogenetics....[Read More]

Study reveals complex interactions between disease genes

A US study looking at the relationship between genes known to cause a rare genetic disease has shown that common and rare genetic variants interact to make symptoms more or less severe...[Read More]

The new epigenetics

All cells in the body have the same complement of 25000 genes, yet different cells in different specific tissues - such as nerve, muscle or gut - have different characteristics phenotype. It follows that different subpopulations of genes within cells of differing function must be active or silenced depending on requirements for function in a particular tissue. Obviously, there will be genes concerned with metabolism, growth, and cell division - the so-cal

Why it should not be illegal to implant 'abnormal' embryos

The draft Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, which will replace the 1990 HFE Act, will have its 3rd reading in the UK House of Lords shortly, before returning for its final Commons debate. The draft Bill has been criticised for allowing too much scope for 'designer babies' and for the...[Read More]

Scientists gain insight into how obesity gene works

Scientists have moved a step closer to understanding how a gene previously linked to obesity makes people prone to weight gain, according to a study published last week in the journal Science. The discovery may help scientists to develop new treatments to combat the increasing numbers of...[Read More]

Three female Afghan hound puppies cloned in Korea

A member of disgraced South Korean scientist Hwang Woo Suk's team has successfully cloned three female Afghan hounds. The three puppies, named Bona (Latin for blessings), Peace and Hope, were created following the scandal in which Hwang's reported breakthrough in creating cloned human cell lines was discredited...[Read More]

Embryo freezing: is it safe?

Embryo freezing is generally seen as a routine part of IVF and ICSI treatment. It offers many benefits, not least the fact that embryos left over from a fresh cycle can be stored for future use. This has implications for the patient's health and wellbeing - it avoids unnecessary gonadotrophin stimulation...[Read More]