Latest Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical and Healthcare News from Bioethics.com

Aiming autism ads at Hispanic and African-American parents

The new campaign is geared specifically at Hispanic and African-American parents because, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the current age of diagnosis among these groups, as well as among low-income families, is higher th...

Scans show premature-baby brain arrested development

Researchers at King’s College London scanned 55 premature infants and 10 babies born at full term, using a novel type of MRI scan. The brain scans showed arrested development in the premature babies at a key stage of maturation. (BBC)

‘Semi-invisible’ sources of strength

With this as my background, I am hardly a disinterested reviewer of a new anthology of essays by 21 nurses. It is beautifully wrought, but more significantly a reminder that these “semi-invisible” people, as Lee Gutkind calls them in this new boo...

Is the future of American health care in Oregon?

The past few years have seen two remarkable health-care experiments in the Beaver State. One is the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment, the first randomized, controlled trial comparing Medicaid — or any kind of health insurance — with being unins...

Mapping a route to stem cell therapies

Dr Jose Polo of the Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute (ARMI) and the Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology and his team, with collaborators at Harvard, have comprehensively mapped, for the first time, the process by which mature ce...

Stem-cell treatment restores sight to blind man

An experimental stem-cell treatment has restored the sight of a man blinded by the degeneration of his retinal cells. The man, who is taking part in a trial examining the safety of using human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) to reverse two common causes...

Gene therapy at center of UTMB effort to eliminate neuropathic pain

University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston researchers have been awarded a five-year, $1.8 million grant by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to apply the techniques of gene therapy to the problem of neuropathic pain—...

After raveges of flesh-eating bacteria, Aimee Copeland uses new bionic hands

Flesh-eating bacteria amputee Aimee Copeland now uses the latest technology in prosthetic hands to chop vegetables, pick up tiny items like Skittles, and comb and iron press her hair. (CNN)

China’s one-child policy affects personality

In 1979 China instituted the one-child policy, which limited every family to just one offspring in a controversial attempt to reduce the country’s burgeoning population. The strictly enforced law had the desired effects: in 2011 researchers est...

Cancer risk gene testing announced

A pioneering programme to test cancer patients for nearly 100 risk genes is to start in London and could represent the future of treatment in the NHS. (BBC)

Authors urge importance of patients’ rights in genome sequencing

Upcoming paper in ‘Science’ pushes back against recent recommendations from the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics. (News-medical)

South America contraception up to 79%, middle Africa 19%

The poorest countries in the world are lagging behind higher-income developing countries in meeting the demand for modern contraception, U.S. researchers say. (UPI)

Ethical path to artificial stem cell technology

Australian research has created a molecular roadmap that shows how any cell in the human body can be turned into artificial stem cells. The roadmap, produced in collaboration with Harvard University, is a major advance in cellular reprogramming tec...

Abortion law in Arkansas is blocked by U.S. judge

A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked enforcement of one of the country’s most stringent abortion laws, an Arkansas ban on the procedure at the 12th week of pregnancy, saying the law was likely to be declared unconstitutional. (New York Tim...

Father seeks euthanasia for his son

A coolie in Kanyakumari district has sought permission for euthanasia of his infant son, who has been suffering from an unknown disorder since his birth. (Times of India)

How nanotechnology could keep your heart healthy

Since the heart is such a delicate and critical organ, clinicians usually opt not to intervene with the dead cells that remain after a heart attack or cardiac disease. (Phys.org)

Scientists unite to solve mystery of mental illness and neurological conditions

Some of the UK’s leading neuroscientists, stem cell biologists, psychologists and psychiatrists are uniting to break down scientific barriers in a bid to solve the mystery of mental illness and neurological conditions. (Wellcome Trust)

Pills tracked from doctor to patient to aid drug marketing

In the old days, sales representatives from drug companies would chat up local pharmacists to learn what drugs doctors were prescribing. Now such shoulder-rubbing is becoming a quaint memory — thanks to vast databases of patient and doctor informat...

Brain stimulation promises ‘long-lasting’ math boost

Applying high-frequency electrical noise to the brain can boost maths skills up to six months later, say Oxford University researchers. (BBC)

Let’s fight big pharma’s crusade to turn eccentricity into illness

People and policymakers may eventually wake up to the fact that we are not a bunch of sick individuals, each of us having a bunch of psychiatric diagnoses, cumulatively constituting a sick society. This is a myth generated by an overly ambitious psyc...

China tries paying for organs

The People’s Republic of China’s new system for acquiring organs—and the man behind it, former Vice Minister of Health Huang Jiefu—has been lauded in some circles as a decisive break from the use of executed prisoners as organ sources. But cr...

Going viral

IF A new and deadly strain of influenza were to arise, putting together a vaccine against it in the least possible time would be a priority. To test how quickly that could be done a group of researchers have just had a race with themselves. (The Econ...

Google buys a quantum computer

Google and NASA are forming a laboratory to study artificial intelligence by means of computers that use the unusual properties of quantum physics. Their quantum computer, which performs complex calculations thousands of times faster than existing s...

Scottish women over 40 to get IVF on the NHS

Women aged up to 42 will now get a free cycle, rather than the previous maximum age limit of 40, after undergoing a test to see how many eggs they have left. This is known as their ovarian reserve. (The Telegraph)

IVF could be revolutionised by new technique, says clinic

Fertility specialists have developed a radical technique that can boost the chances of IVF couples having a healthy baby. Doctors in Nottingham who devised the procedure say it could raise live birthrates at their clinic to 78%, around three times th...