Biotechnology News

BRUSSELS (AFP) - European regulators authorised on Wednesday the import of six types of genetically-modified maize for use in animal feed after governments were deadlocked over whether to ban or approve them. Full Story »

Your genes may determine how likely you are to imitate the drinking habits of others, new research suggests. Full Story »

By Frederik Joelving NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The widely reported liver transplant at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital to alleged killer Johnny Concepcion never took place, a spokesperson told Reuters Health on Tuesday. On Monday, the New York Post said Concepcion, 43, who allegedly stabbed his wife to death earlier this month, had gotten a liver transplant at the hospital after eating rat poison in a suicide attempt. The story quickly took off, making headlines such as msnbc.com's "Many outraged as accused murderer gets liver transplant" and CBS News' "Suspected Killer Gets Organ Transplant, Jumped to Top of Waiting List." Liver failure from poison can sometimes kill people much more quickly than a chronic condition such as cirrhosis. That's why a victim of poisoning may move ahead of other patients who've spent more time on the liver transplant waiting list. But Bryan Dotson, a spokesperson for the New York Presbyterian Hospital, said the New York Post report was wrong. "This person did not receive a liver transplant at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital," he told Reuters Health. He declined to make further comments, as hospitals often do in an attempt to protect patient confidentiality. It is unclear whether Concepcion had been taken to another hospital to receive a new liver. Detective Marc Nell, a spokesperson for the New York Police Department, confirmed that Concepcion had been arrested on July 7 in the Bronx in connection with the murder of Jordania Sarita two days earlier. He told Reuters Health the police are still working on the case. He said Concepcion had been transported to the hospital by ambulance, but did not know when this had happened. The alleged incident prompted Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and an msnbc.com contributor, to call for legislative action. Caplan said a hospital wasn't the place to make ethical judgments about patients, deciding who deserves care and who doesn't. "At the end of the day if you are furious that Johnny Concepcion is still alive to face trial you should blame politicians, not doctors," he writes. The NY Post appeared to have taken down its story, "Suicidal 'killer' gets liver transplant," on Tuesday morning. Full Story »

WEDNESDAY, July 21 (HealthDay News) -- Eight of nine male infants born with so-called "Bubble Boy" disease were still alive and well nine years after they underwent gene therapy, French researchers report. Full Story »

BOSTON (Reuters) - A 10-year study of nine boys born without the ability to ward off germs has found that gene therapy is an effective long-term treatment, but it carries a price: four of them developed leukemia. Full Story »

MONDAY, July 19 (HealthDay News) -- Exposure to cigarette smoke can undermine the immune system and raise the risk for cancer, cell death and metabolic problems by harming gene expression, new research reveals. Full Story »

THURSDAY, July 15 (HealthDay News) -- Scientists are releasing the first results from a major study looking at how cancer patients' genes influence the success of the therapies they receive. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A gene that appears to protect people from sleeping sickness in Africa also appears to make black Americans four times more likely to develop kidney disease, U.S. and Belgian researchers reported on Thursday. Full Story »

Doctors have long noticed a link between smoking and cancers found in organs beside the lungs, including kidney, colon and bladder cancers. Full Story »

BRUSSELS (AFP) - European ministers will discuss genetically modified crops in the autumn, the EU said Wednesday, a day after a proposal aimed at breaking a deadlock on the controversial foods was widely criticised. Full Story »

Washington, D.C. - Designer organisms created from scratch in genomics labs won't run amok anytime soon, according to scientists speaking at the first public meeting of President Obama's bioethics commission held here in the nation's capital last week. Full Story »

MONDAY, July 12 (HealthDay News) -- For children undergoing stem cell transplantation, complementary therapies such as massage and humor therapy don't seem to reduce their distress, researchers found. Full Story »

WASHINGTON — They may not be the 500-pound "Frankenfish" that some researchers were talking about 10 years ago, but a Massachusetts company says it's on the verge of receiving federal approval to market a quick-growing Atlantic salmon that's been genetically modified with help from a Pacific Chinook salmon. Full Story »

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The first of three new fat-fighting pills faces public scrutiny by U.S. regulatory advisers next week, as small biotechs target the growing number of obese Americans despite a checkered past for weight-loss drugs. Full Story »

When faced with the threat of disease, organisms are often forced to evolve or perish. Traditionally, scientists have observed that such adaptation occurs though changes to an organism's genes. But one fly species has opted for an alternative solution - get a friend to help you out. Full Story »

MONTREAL (AFP) - Scientific advances of the past decade, such as the sequencing of the human genome, have opened up compelling new fields of research on the interaction of the body's 21,000 proteins, and the role they play in cancer and other diseases. Full Story »

How long you live has a lot to do with your environment and lifestyle, but exceptional longevity may have even more to do with your genes Full Story »

LONDON (Reuters) - Mothers who eat a high fat diet before and during pregnancy may be putting their offspring at risk of birth defects, scientists said on Tuesday. Full Story »