Are mesenchymal stem cells the new theriac of old, a medical concoction originally made by Greeks that was thought to cure all illnesses?...
Back in 18th century, British physician Dr Edward Jenner tested his hypothesis that harmless cowpox can prevent deadly smallpox disease on a young boy in exchange for a few coins to his poor parents. In 2018, a Chinese researcher Dr He Jiankui tested geno
Almost a century ago, Professor Hans Spemann, a German biologist from the University of Freiburg, and his PhD student Hilde Mangold defined a group of cells in newt embryos that triggered development of the central nervous system...
Recent debate over the safety of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing following a study that suggested it can cause hundreds of unexpected mutations left me puzzled...
The regulatory mechanisms governing organ development are, in general, poorly defined. To recreate the complex processes involved in organ growth and maturation, scientists have started fiddling with three-dimensional (3D) cell culture...
A match of mitochondrial and nuclear genomes apparently affects healthy ageing in mice. But key questions need to be answered before stirring up implications for human mitochondrial replacement therapies...
A recent announcement that scientists had created functioning spermatozoids from mouse embryonic stem cells in the lab made quite a splash in the media. However, one key point seemed to be overlooked...
Given the complexity of the technology, costs and risks involved, two recently described mitochondrial 'gene-correction' strategies will probably remain as proof-of-concept studies and are unlikely be of practical use in clinical medicine in the foreseeable future...
Two papers published back to back in Nature took our breath away earlier this year, but the research community soon became sceptical and the published work was subjected to unprecedented scrutiny. How is it possible that something like this could happen?...
This apparent witch's recipe is how a group of Japanese scientists have generated new mice: a remarkable finding that proves that true greatness lies in simplicity...
