The clinical trial of a controversial stem-cell therapy supported by the Italian government has been stopped before recruiting any patients – to the relief of scientists who have been fighting the trial for months. Read more
The consumer genetics firm 23andMe was last week awarded a US patent for a method used to predict a baby’s traits based on its parents’ DNA, the Mountain View, California-based company announced. Read more
A scientific advisory committee in Italy yesterday (11 September) gave a decided thumbs down to a controversial stem-cell treatment slated for a €3 million, government-sponsored clinical trial. Read more
Hundreds of American babies will be pioneers in genomic medicine through a program that will award $25 million to researchers to sequence the babies’ genomes soon after they are born. Read more
A Taiwanese court will rule on 4 September in a libel lawsuit filed by a petrochemical company against an environmental engineer whose studies had suggested that a plant operated by the company was causing higher cancer rates in its vicinity. Read more
Was it enough for doctors to tell the parents of extremely premature infants that there was “no additional risk” to their babies if they enrolled them in a randomized trial? One treatment group, in which the preemies were maintained with higher blood oxygen, risked eye damage. The other kept the babies at lower oxygen levels, risking brain damage and perhaps death. Both were within the range of care that the babies would have received anyway. Read more
California Governor Jerry Brown has vetoed a proposed law that would have allowed payments to women who give their eggs to scientific researchers. Read more
The credibility of Japan’s clinical research system has come under fire as investigations report manipulation of data and conflict of interest involving the pharmaceutical company Novartis. Six published papers have been retracted, but Novartis has denied any wrongdoing. The country’s health minister has now started its own investigation, which is due to release its findings at the end of September. Read more
A human rights mission to Turkey to investigate the cases of eight scientists, engineers and medical doctors detained under vague but broad-ranging crimes like ‘attempting to overthrow the government’ has concluded that prosecutors have not provided convincing evidence of their guilt and called for all eight to be released. Read more
A Turkish astrophysicist faces two years of jail for forbidding access to a university building to a student wearing a headscarf. On Thursday, Ankara’s Supreme Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s verdict against Esat Rennan Pekünlü, an astronomer at Ege University in Izmir. Read more
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The report produced by the investigators does not say so explicitly, probably out of fear of prejudicing future criminal/civil inquiries,… ... Read more
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Contamination created controversial ‘acid-induced’ stem cells