Baby Bridget weighed in at a healthy 7lbs 9oz (3.4kg) at Cork University Maternity Hospital on June 27th when she was born to a couple at risk of having a baby with Cystic Fibrosis. Photograph: Google Street View The birth of the first baby in the Republic following a technique to screen embryos for genetic conditions such as cystic fibrosis prior to implantation has been hailed as a major milestone for Irish reproductive medicine. Baby Bridget weighed in at a healthy 7lbs 9oz (3.4kg) at Cork University Maternity Hospital on June 27th when she was born to couple, Lisa Cooke and Patrick Mullane who were at risk of having a baby with Cystic Fibrosis, the most common genetic disease in Ireland. Dr John Waterstone of the Cork Fertility Centre, which carried out Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) on embryos belonging to the couple, explained that Bridgets birth was a highly significant development for couples at risk of having a baby with CF. We are very pleased to announce the arrival of the first baby after PGD in Ireland - this is a fantastic day for Patrick and Lisa and an important milestone in Irish reproductive medicine, said Dr Waterstone who is … Continue reading →

See Inside Even as cancer therapies improve, basic questions about drug resistance, tumour spread and the role of normal tissue remain unanswered BRENDAN MONROE In 1996, Charles Sawyers designed early clinical trials for one of the first drugs aimed at a cancer-specific genetic mutation. The drug was imatinib, the cancer was chronic myeloid leukaemia and Sawyers a clinical oncologist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York saw patients who had been debilitated by the disease rapidly improve when given the medicine. It was unbelievably satisfying, he says. Unfortunately, he then saw many of those cancers come roaring back as they became resistant to the drug. The experience with imatinib has given cancer biologists mixed messages. The medicine, now marketed by Novartis in Basel, Switzerland, as Gleevec or Glivec, highlights the potential of personalized medicine. Figuring out what mutation caused the disease and designing a drug to target it was a technological triumph, and it was followed by two further drugs to combat the emerging drug resistance. But treating cancer by chasing mutation after mutation with drug after expensive drug is not a sustainable model not least because few cancers other than leukaemia have simple, known genetic causes. … Continue reading →

Congenital Hypotonia | Stem Cell Treatment Testimonial Saif and his mother, like many other families, were left with no hope after Saif was diagnosed with Benign Congenital Hypotonia, a muscle weakness disease similar to Muscular Dystrophy. Local... By: Beike Biotech … Continue reading →