Stem cell therapy may help angina patients

Researchers at Northwestern University, Chicago, USA, have reported that the injection of stem cells into heart tissue can significantly improve the symptoms of those with severe angina. They found that exercise tolerance was increased and the number of pain episodes was halved, compared to those not given the injections....[Read More]

Study highlights variation in human mutation rates

In the first direct measure of new mutation rates in humans, researchers have found that when parents pass their genes down to their children an average of 60 mutations are introduced into the genetic code during the process...[Read More]

New guidelines published for the reporting of genetic risk prediction studies

This week saw the culmination of an international effort to devise guidelines to strengthen and standardise the reporting of genetic risk prediction studies...[Read More]

Genetic clues to a self-healing skin cancer discovered by scientists

An international collaborative team, including Cancer Research UK scientists from the University of Dundee, has uncovered the genetic cause of a rare type of skin cancer. The condition called Ferguson-Smith disease, is also known as multiple self-healing squamous epithelioma (MSSE)...[Read More]

Gene link to depression under question

A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association has called into question a previously reported link between a gene variation and risk of depression. The study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and carried out by scientists from six US universities, was led by Dr Kathleen Merikangas from the NIMH Intramural Research program and Dr Neil Risch of the University of California, San Francisco....[Read More]

Healthy diet may improve sperm quality

A diet rich in steak and other red meat might hinder a man's chances of conceiving a child, say Spanish researchers. According to their study published in the journal 'Fertility and Sterility', a healthy antioxidant-rich diet might be the key to sperm quality and motility. Men who eat a lot of fruit and vegetables, in particular peppers, spinach and citrus fruits, have higher quality and faster swimming sperm....[Read More]

Genetic discrimination of people with family history of Huntington's disease

A study by researchers at the University of British Columbia in Canada and published in the British Medical Journal has shown that individuals at risk of Huntington's disease (HD) are often discriminated against by insurance companies, and also by their own relatives and friends. They also found that this discrimination was based on family history of the disease rather than any genetic test results....[Read More]

Scientists fix genetic defect in human cells

A team of scientists led by Professor Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, from the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California has combined stem cell technology and gene therapy to fix a genetic mutation in human cells grown in the laboratory. The researchers, who published their achievement in Nature, hope that this technique could one day be used to treat a number of inherited conditions in humans....[Read More]

Scientists create transgenic glowing monkeys to aid research

A team of researchers led by Dr Erika Sasaki at the Central Institute for Experimental Animals in Kawasaki, Japan has created monkeys that glow, by inserting a gene from jellyfish into their DNA. The research, published in the journal Nature, showed that the transgene was passed on...[Read More]

66 year old women is Britain's oldest mother-to-be

The record for Britain's oldest women to give birth will be broken next month by 66 year old Elizabeth Munro, from Cambridge. It is thought that Ms Munro, who is single and a successful business woman, travelled to the Ukraine to become pregnant using donor eggs and...[Read More]