This marks the third animal-human hybrid embryo licence to be issued by Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and the first since the Commons voted in favour of this controversial research last month. (Telegraph)

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced that five to ten academic health science centres will be established. It will see teaching hospitals working alongside university research departments to “benefit each other in the years to come”. (UKTI Today)

This weekend, The Methuselah Foundation, is sponsoring its first U.S. conference on the emerging interdisciplinary field that [Aubrey] de Grey has helped kick start. (Its first day, Friday, will be free and open to the public.) The conference, Aging: The Disease - The Cure - The Implications, held at UCLA, is an indication of how far de Grey has come in mainstreaming his ideas. (Wired)

Many students plan on careers in fields such as medicine or pharmacy, often after they’ve experienced genetic manipulation in the high school lab. A typical experiment at Tucson High Magnet School, for example, involves inserting particular genes into bacteria and checking for expression. (redOrbit)

A European Patent Office (EPO) tribunal in Munich heard a dispute Tuesday on whether a method of growing embryonal human stem cells can be patented, but gave no date for its decision on the controversial case. US scientist James Thomson, who in 1998 was the first in the world to cultivate such stem cells, is appealing to EPO’s highest board over the refusal to grant a patent in the European Union for the so-called WARF stem cell. (Earthtimes)

The Center for Public Integrity said drug companies spent $168 million on lobbying last year, up 32% from 2006. The efforts paid off on some important issues. (Premium Wall Street Journal)

CALL it biological alchemy: specialist pancreatic cells that secrete digestive enzymes have been converted directly into insulin-producing beta cells. Meanwhile, epithelial cells from the back of the eye have been coaxed into becoming a versatile, new type of stem cell. (Premium - New Scientist)

14 Member Organisations of the European Science Foundation have launched a key initiative to keep Europe at the forefront of regenerative medicine; broadly defined as the development of stem cell therapies to restore lost, damaged, or ageing cells and tissues in the human body. (PhysOrg)

Last Monday, the state’s laboratory field services group issued 13 cease-and-desist letters to genetic testing companies. Wired.com obtained a copy of the letters (pdf.) from two recipients. And the tough talk in a recent teleconference among regulatory officials confirms the seriousness of the department’s intent. (Wired)

Could pig-to-human transplants revolutionize medicine? a report on the promises, risks and controversy. (FRONTLINE)

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a venture capital firm in the Silicon Valley has just bet on adult stem cell research. While the amount of funding is still not known, we do know that they’ve invested in a new Bay Area company, iZumi Bio Inc.

Collaborative work with iZumi and San Francisco based J.David Gladstone Institutes, “will build on breakthrough methods of creating “induced pluripotent stem cells,” which are adult skin cells that can be coaxed to develop into many cell types. These cells might some day help to regenerate injured spinal cords or damaged hearts, scientists hope.

The technology sidesteps the ethical objections raised against research in human embryonic stem cells, which are derived from early stage human embryos that are often destroyed in the process. In addition, the technology may help avoid immune system rejection of replacement tissues, because an adult patient’s cell could be the source of stem cells that are a genetic match to that individual.

“We all feel the (induced pluripotent stem cells) technology has the potential to transform the regenerative medicine space,” said Thane Kreiner, chief executive officer of iZumi.”"

A loophole in the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill could permit some reproductive cloning without the need for fresh primary legislation, the Government has admitted. (Times Online)

So much time is spent by the media (and SHS) arguing about technologies like cloning and ESCR, that I like to feature non-controversial biotech stories from time to time in order to help us all keep a proper perspective. This story seems a good example: New biomarkers are being tested that may detect kidney damage in patients involved in new drug tests much earlier than is possible under current protocols, which don’t pick up kidney damage until 1/3-1/2 of organ function is lost. But the new tests may allow for much quicker detection. From the story:

The set of seven biomarker tests, when used in rats, can detect kidney damage almost as soon as it occurs, Goodsaid said. The tests measure levels in the urine of substances associated with the breakdown of kidney cells. At this point, the FDA and European regulators are encouraging drugmakers to use the new test array on a voluntary basis in the animal studies they use to assess experimental drugs that may be advanced into clinical trials in humans. The older tests for kidney toxicity will still be required to monitor clinical trial subjects.

Note that when I say non controversial I need to put in an important caveat: This new test, like almost all biotechnology, requires animal testing to perfect. This means opposition from animal rights activists is a given. But, they oppose all animal testing, which means at some point they oppose the development of virtually all new medical and biotechnological advances. So, I think it is fair to say that since they hate everything, they don’t count.

Leading geneticist Samir Brahmachari explains why India should kickstart a new ‘open source’ approach to drug discovery for diseases like TB. (SciDev)

Modern cells are like microscopic cities: They have power plants (mitochondria), trash dumps (lysosomes), local government (the nucleus, with DNA serving as the legal charter), and many other activities going on inside their boundaries. They also have a border patrol in the form of a double-layered membrane that uses a series of protein-powered pumps, pores and channels to let nutrients in and keep other chemicals and substances out.
(Scientific American)

CHILDREN with three parents might sound like monstrous chimeras, but they are among us already. In the late 1990s, an American team created the first genetically engineered humans by adding part of the egg of one woman to the egg of another, to treat infertility. When the US Food and Drug Administration got wind of the technique it was promptly banned, though related methods have been used in other countries. (Premium New Scientist)

A team of London scientists have taken a major step in making the use of artificial veins and arteries in coronary bypass grafts a reality. Researchers have developed artificial graft tissue by combining man-made materials with human cells to make it elastic and durable and so it can attach to host tissue. (ScienceDaily)

Drug discovery is a cruel business. A hundred thousand people die every year because of adverse drug side effects. Millions die too young because drugs just aren’t good enough. (CBC News)

Researchers at The University of Nottingham have taken some important first steps to creating a synthetic copycat of a living cell, a leading science journal reports. (ScienceDaily)

Western Australia may be the only state in Australia to have crushed the chances of scientists here using therapeutic cloning to cure hitherto incurable diseases but could the decision prove a global turning point? (ScienceAlert)

Most people who become paralysed or lose limbs retain the mental dexterity to perform physical actions. And by tapping into a region of the brain responsible for movement – the motor cortex – researchers can decode a person’s intentions and translate them into action with a prosthetic. (New Scientist)