Issue 552 (05 April 2010)

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Introduce payment for egg donors

06 April 2010 - by Dr John Parsons

The time has come to look again at offering proportionate payments to women without a fertility problem who donate eggs. Licensed clinics should stop using eggs from egg sharing arrangements and be banned from supporting links with overseas clinics that use anonymous donors...[Read More]

Marked for life?

06 April 2010 - by Professor Derek Bolton

Genetics has made enormous advances towards understanding the causes of medical and psychiatric conditions. We know from the past few decades of research that many common psychiatric conditions have some contribution from genes, ranging from modest (30 to 40 per cent) to high (over 60 per cent). Moving on from this general finding, two questions dominate current research...[Read More]

US judge overturns gene patents

06 April 2010 - by Dr Vivienne Raper

A US judge has invalidated a genetic testing company's patents on two breast cancer genes...[Read More]

Cell division genes published

06 April 2010 - by Ailsa Stevens

The results of a huge multinational project to pinpoint all the genes and related proteins essential for cell division are to be made publically available for other researchers to use...[Read More]

Acupuncture tried by 22 per cent of infertile Californians

06 April 2010 - by Harriet Vickers

Alternative therapies - especially acupuncture - are employed by a substantial proportion of Americans trying to get pregnant, say researchers. Nearly a third of couples followed in a Californian study tried acupuncture, herbal therapy and massage....[Read More]

DNA duplications and deletions don't bridge 'heritability gap'

06 April 2010 - by Marianne Neary

A study investigating the effects of common large DNA deletions and duplications has found no new links to complex disease...[Read More]

Clarification: Change to UK law allows same-sex couples to become legal parents

06 April 2010 - by Ailsa Stevens

Last week BioNews reported on the coming into force of new legislation allowing same-sex couples to become the legal parents of children born following IVF or surrogacy....[Read More]

Soft drinks linked to sperm quality

06 April 2010 - by Sophie Pryor

Consuming large volumes of soft drinks may lower mens' sperm count, suggest the results of a new Danish study....[Read More]

Event Review: Francis Galton and Francis Crick - Cases of Mistaken Identity?

06 April 2010 - by Dr Gabrielle Samuel

This small session, convened in the Wellcome Trust's Library last Wednesday, was the tale of two Francis's. The discussion highlighted the lives of, and drew on the similarities between, Francis Galton - who coined the term eugenics - and Francis Crick - who determined the structure of DNA with James Watson...[Read More]