The International Serious Adverse Events Consortium (SAEC) officially announced its formation this morning. The new global, non-profit partnership between leading pharmaceutical companies, 
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and academic institutions plans to identify and validate genetic markers that may help predict which individuals are at risk for serious adverse drug events. The goal of the consortium is to publish a set of predictive SNPs for all drug-related serious adverse events (SAEs), reducing significant patient and economic costs as well as improving the flow of safe and effective medical advances by addressing safety issues of new drugs before they reach the market.
Discredited Stem Cells Created by Virgin Birth
August 15, 2007 | by
In 2004, Korean investigators lead by Woo Suk Hwang at Seoul National University announced the creation of the world’s first human embryonic stem cell line generated by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), which involves the transfer of DNA, usually from a skin cell, into an egg cell that has had its DNA-containing nucleus removed. The work, published in the prominent journal Science, was retracted in 2006 amidst evidence that the researchers had falsified their data.
However, a study published online August 2nd, 2007, by the journal Cell Stem Cell reports that the Koreans unintentionally created the world’s first human embryonic stem cell derived by parthenogenesis, or virgin birth. Development is triggered spontaneously from the egg alone without the need for sperm fertilization.
