The Parliamentary Office for Science & Technology (POST) have just produced one of their fab postnotes focused on clinical trials. If you want to get your head around what they are and why we’re talking about them in four pages, it’s worth a read. It’s a great summary of what clinical trials are and why we… [Read more…]
October 28, 2011 by beckypurvis
Yesterday David Willetts confirmed the UK government is exploring the impact of the new EU ban on patenting of embryo stem cells and that they will continue funding research using embryo stem cells. Background The European Court of Justice made a decision on 18 October which effectively bans the patenting of scientific techniques involving embryonic stem… [Read more…]
October 28, 2011 by martinturner
A new report published by BIS comparing the UK against other research-intensive nations highlights the international strength of the UK research community but also warns that it is under threat from underfunding and a decreasing share of the international scientific workforce. The report includes some pretty interesting statistics about research in the UK, comparing what… [Read more…]
October 26, 2011 by beckypurvis
The House of Lords are scrutinising the health bill clause by clause. They started yesterday on clause 1 – kicking off at about 3pm they finished at 9pm still discussing amendments to clause 1. There are lots of research-focused amendments – I summarised them in this blog. Amendments with a similar purpose are grouped together for… [Read more…]
October 25, 2011 by beckypurvis
The Lords were looking at animal research again yesterday evening, in particular the process of updating UK law to bring us into line with the EU Directive governing animal research which was updated recently. The Home Office minister responding made a very clear statement of the value of research using animals and stressed the government’s… [Read more…]
October 25, 2011 by beckypurvis
Graham Stringer is planning to ask Vince Cable what he is doing to look at the impact of Europe’s decision last week to ban the patenting of embryo stem cells (check out my previous blog for background on the ban) when he comes into parliament for Business, Innovation and Skills questions on Thursday. Graham has… [Read more…]
October 24, 2011 by beckypurvis
The House of Lords start scrutinising the Health & Social Care Bill clause by clause tomorrow. Lots of amendments have been tabled to drive the discussion – they’ve all been marshalled into one list here (although this will be updated as more are likely to be tabled during committee stage. It’s scheduled to last for ten… [Read more…]
October 24, 2011 by beckypurvis
…in the Independent magazine this Saturday. Of mice and medicine: in defence of animal experiments talks to several scientists about why they use animals in research. It goes into why alternatives to studying animals don’t yet exist for all the research that scientists need to do to understand and treat disease – we are often asked… [Read more…]
October 19, 2011 by beckypurvis
The European Court of Justice made a decision yesterday which effectively bans the patenting of scientific techniques involving embryonic stem cells, even if the technique itself does not directly destroy an embryo but at some stage in the process has involved the use of an embryo. This has no effect on us doing research using… [Read more…]
October 17, 2011 by martinturner
On 6th October the government launched two new NIHR translational research partnerships that will focus on two disease areas: inflammatory respiratory disease and joint and related inflammatory disease. These are a continuation of the Therapeutic Capability Clusters trialed last year aimed at bringing together experts in the NHS and academia and outside funders to try… [Read more…]
October 31, 2011 by beckypurvis
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