Issue 557 (10 May 2010)

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Meeting demand for human tissue: should we even try?

10 May 2010 - by Professor Dame Marilyn Strathern

'Been there, sperm donated and got the t-shirt'. 'Be an organ donor, get a free funeral!' 'Hey mister, wanna buy a kidney?' These were just some of the UK and international headlines reporting on the launch last week of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics' consultation on donation of human bodily material for medical treatment and research...[Read More]

Prenatal effects on sperm production in adult males

10 May 2010 - by Dr Allan Pacey

Nearly 10 years ago, Professor Niels Skakkebæk from the Copenhagen University Hospital, published details of a new syndrome to account for the apparent increase in problems related to the male reproductive system that had been documented in many countries...[Read More]

IVF costs increasing Australian multiple births

10 May 2010 - by Tamara Hirsch

Rising IVF costs may drive up Australian multiple birth rates and put women's health at risk, according to some clinical specialists....[Read More]

Study suggests gene linked to credit card debt

10 May 2010 - by Rosemary Paxman

Our genetic make-up may influence the likelihood of running into debt, UK and US researchers have found, according to the LSE research magazine....[Read More]

Darwin's family health harmed by inbreeding

10 May 2010 - by Victoria Kay

Charles Darwin's concerns that his children's ill health was due to his cousin marriage were justified, according to a new study. The UK-Spanish study, which analysed four generations of Darwin's family, provides statistical evidence of a link between ill health and the degree of inbreeding in his and his wife's families....[Read More]

Reprogrammed stem cells could decrease animal testing

10 May 2010 - by Lux Fatimathas and Vivienne Raper

Reprogrammed stem cells could reduce or even eliminate the need for animal testing, according to the scientist who first created them...[Read More]

Neanderthal genome sequenced

10 May 2010 - by Dr Charlotte Maden

Neanderthals are our closest evolutionary relative, a study published in the journal Science has found...[Read More]

Multiple Sclerosis stem cell therapy trialled

10 May 2010 - by Dr Rachael Panizzo

A clinical trial investigating the treatment of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) using bone marrow stem cells has produced encouraging results, researchers at Bristol University have reported....[Read More]

Multiple Sclerosis stem cell therapy guidelines launched

10 May 2010 - by Dr Nadeem Shaikh

On 6th May 2010, the journal Nature Reviews Neurology published a new report about the future of multiple sclerosis (MS). The guidelines focus on the use of stem cell therapy. They were written by a group of international experts on the disease...[Read More]

Cell's 'power cells' protect against stroke

10 May 2010 - by Marianne Neary

Certain variations of mitochondrial DNA are protective against strokes, according to a recent study in The Lancet Neurology....[Read More]

Comic Review: Alisa's Tale - A Short Story

10 May 2010 - by Ailsa Stevens

I'm going to come clean from the start. My experience of comics is limited to precisely one example: 'Preacher' by Gareth Ennis and Steven Dillon - the story of Reverend Jesse Custer, a beatnik Texan cleric who is accidentally possessed by a supernatural deity during a freak accident. Needless to say, the storyline bears little resemblance to 'Alisa's Tale' - the story of a young woman with a restricted growth condition known as achondroplasia...[Read More]