Joanne Delange

1 week ago | progress.org.uk | Joanne Delange |Vanessa Burns

Across the globe, people are experiencing the effects of climate change. But what does this mean in the context of human reproduction and reproductive choice? As part of a series of Cambridge Festival events focusing on 'Reproductive Justice in a Changing Climate', Cambridge Reproduction organised a panel discussion and exhibition that critically dissected this very question.

1 week ago | progress.org.uk | Joanne Delange

Amy Isabel has become the first UK baby born following a womb transplant. Her mother, Grace Davidson, received her sister's donated womb (also known as a uterus) in 2023 – the UK's first successful womb transplant (see BioNews 1204 and 1248). The landmark procedure was led jointly by surgeons Professor J Richard Smith and Isabel Quiroga. Together, they lead the charity Womb Transplant UK, which funded the sisters' surgeries.

1 week ago | progress.org.uk | Joanne Delange |Dan Jacobson

An at-home spit test to identify patients at risk of prostate cancer, using a polygenic risk score, has been shown to outperform current testing methods. The initial results of the BARCODE1 study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that for men with the highest risk of prostate cancer, this new test based on risk-associated genetic variants was more accurate than the standard NHS-applied blood test, which detects the enzyme protein-specific antigen (PSA).

1 week ago | progress.org.uk | Joanne Delange

A human tooth has been grown under laboratory conditions by scientists from King's College London. 'This idea of replacing the tooth in a biological way by regrowing it, drew me to London and to King's,' explained the director of regenerative dentistry, Dr Ana Angelova Volponi. 'By growing a tooth in a dish, we are really filling in the gaps of knowledge.'The scientists do, however, explain that the research is a long way from being usable in clinical practice.

1 week ago | progress.org.uk | Joanne Delange

An article in Time claims that three dire wolf pups have been born. Yet, independent experts argue that they are grey wolves with edits to their DNA to make them resemble the genome of the dire wolf. Ancient DNA was used to identify key segments of code that they could edit into the grey wolf. 'So what... has [been] produced is a grey wolf, but it has some dire wolf-like characteristics, like a larger skull and white fur...