BioNews - Home

Welcome

10 years after BioNews was founded, its website and free email newsletter have been redeveloped and relaunched with generous support from the UK Government's Department of Health and the Wellcome Trust. The redeveloped website also has an RSS feed.

We'll be developing and adding features to the new website throughout 2010, and we can do an even better job of this with your input. Please contact us and let us know what you think of the new website, if you encounter any problems or difficulties with it, and if you have any suggestions for how it might be improved.

	TOP NEWS STORIES

Small RNAs help stem cells change state

08 February 2010 - by Rachael Panizzo

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, have discovered that microRNA (miRNA) play a key role in the switch in state between a stem cell and a mature, differentiated cell...[Read More]

Scientists announce ‘huge step forward’ in stem cell research

08 February 2010 - by Sarah Guy

A research team at Stanford University School of Medicine has for the first time successfully transformed mouse skin cells directly into neurons. They achieved this by infecting the skin cells with a genetically modified virus that inserts three different genes into the cells' DNA...[Read More]

MP questions minister over fertility watchdog investigation

08 February 2010 - by Antony Blackburn-Starza

Questions have been raised in Parliament over the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority’s (HFEA) decision to launch an internal investigation into its operations during the investigation of Mohamed Taranissi, the 'person responsible' for the Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre (ARGC) in 2007...[Read More]

	RECENT COMMENT

Older mothers and global/national responsibilities

08 February 2010 - by Professor Naomi Pfeffer

Much of the debate about elderly motherhood has focussed on the anomalous situation of a woman simultaneously qualifying for an old age pension and child benefit. It is an engaging topic, but the discussion needs to be widened to include a consideration of global/national responsibilities: the relationship of a woman who provides an egg to, following its fertilisation, the woman in whom the embryo is implanted....[Read More]

'High-quality research is effectively being vetoed'

08 February 2010 - by Dr Robin Lovell-Badge

Austin Smith and I, with support from Peter Lawrence, gave interviews to Pallab Ghosh for BBC News where we raised several issues about the peer review and editorial processes of high-profile journals dealing with stem cell research papers. We went as far as saying that some high-quality research is effectively being vetoed from publication by a few powerful scientists, in some cases to deliberately to stifle their competition. Moreover, these journals have also published some papers that hav...[Read More]

Time to put a stop to postmenopausal mothers?

01 February 2010 - by Dr Anna Smajdor

When Liz Buttle (then aged 60) became the UK's oldest mother in 1997, she was subjected to a storm of media criticism. Since then, debate over appropriate age limits for fertility treatment has shown no signs of abatement, while a growing number of postmenopausal women seek treatment in the UK and abroad....[Read More]

	LATEST REVIEWS

TV Review: 8 boys and wanting a girl

08 February 2010 - by Anoushka Shepherd

Any media coverage focusing on views toward children is always bound to be both emotive and contentious. '8 Boys and Wanting a Girl' fit that description perfectly. Throughout Channel 4's hour-long show, I felt an emotional cocktail of disgust, confusion, empathy, sorrow and disbelief....[Read More]

TV Review: 'Too old to be a mum?'

01 February 2010 - by Jenny Dunlop

I have a feeling that whether you work in the fertility field or not everyone has a strong point of view about the upper age that a woman should have fertility treatment and become a mother. Maybe this thought was behind the producers of this BBC documentary that they could challenge all our firmly held beliefs? Or maybe they just thought that it would make contentious sexy television?...[Read More]

Book Review: The Rough Guide to Genes and Cloning

14 January 2010 - by Nienke Korsten

This book does what it says on the tin: it is filled to the brim with information on genes and cloning. The authors have managed to treat the basics of the subject without dumbing it down, venturing into specialist areas such as laboratory techniques for cloning and behavioural genetics and explaining the associated jargon along the way, and exploring links with philosophy, culture and psychology...[Read More]