CGS encourages responsible uses and effecitve governance of human genetic and assisted reproductive technologies

Featured

“He is untouchable”: Penn officials allegedly cover up workplace abuse at James Wilson's Gene Therapy Program

By Katie Hasson | 05.11.2022
Biopolitical Times

 Rehua, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

James Wilson, director of the Gene Therapy Program at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, is facing claims that he has condoned and contributed to a “dysfunctional toxic workplace.” According to reporters at Penn’s independent student newspaper, it appears that top university officials are protecting him from these charges because his biotechnology companies, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, pay lucrative licensing fees to the school.

Twenty years ago...

Patents & Other IP

War in Ukraine Exacerbates Problems with Surrogacy Industry

By Emily Galpern | 03.31.2022
Biopolitical Times

For a roundup of recent articles on the impact of the war on surrogacy, see this page at Surrogacy360, a project of the Center for Genetics and Society

Photos and videos of newborns lined up in plastic cots in a Ukrainian hotel room plastered the news at the beginning of the COVID pandemic; their parents were unable to reach them due to travel restrictions. As soon as Russia invaded Ukraine over a month ago, similar images emerged – though...

Other Countries

Should we use genome editing to make better babies? Here’s what the experts think

By Tim Brinkhof, Big Think [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 03.23.2022

Aggregated News

George Church is one of the world’s most famous pioneers of genetics and biotechnology. He has made colossal contributions to...

Society

Virtual Conference Wrapup: Looking Ahead to the Third Human Genome Editing Summit

By Pete Shanks | 03.15.2022
Biopolitical Times

The Royal Society’s 3-day online substitute for the postponed Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing seems to have been...

Genomics

Biopolitical Times

Terrorist Cites Genetic Research to Promote White Supremacy

By Pete Shanks | 05.26.2022

A Eugenics Society poster (1930s) from the 
Wellcome Library Eugenics Society Archive via Wikimedia

On a Saturday afternoon in May...

Genetic Selection

“He is untouchable”: Penn officials allegedly cover up workplace abuse at James Wilson's Gene Therapy Program

By Katie Hasson | 05.11.2022

 Rehua, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

James Wilson, director of the Gene Therapy Program at Penn’s...

Patents & Other IP

Remembrances of Sheldon Krimsky (1941-2022): Preeminent chronicler of conflict-of-interest and profit motive in the industry-university complex

By Stuart A. Newman, Guest Contributor | 05.09.2022

I first met Sheldon Krimsky at a conference on “Research with Recombinant DNA” organized by the U.S. National Academy of...

Human Genetic Modification

News

‘Why Biology Is Not Destiny’: An Exchange

By Kathryn Paige Harden et al., The New York Review | 05.25.2022

In response to:

Why Biology Is Not Destiny from the April 21, 2022 issue

To the Editors:

Marcus Feldman and Jessica Riskin did not like my book. Or rather, they did not like a book called The Genetic Lottery...

Human Genetic Modification

Buffalo shooting ignites a debate over the role of genetics researchers in white supremacist ideology

By Megan Molteni, STAT | 05.23.2022

Photo by Colin Lloyd on Unsplash

The 18-year-old gunman suspected of carrying out a racist attack that killed 10 and injured three people in Buffalo, N.Y., last weekend left no questions about why he drove 200 miles to a supermarket...

U.S. States

From small beginnings: to build an anti-eugenic future

By Benedict Ipgrave, Miroslava Chavez-Garcia, Marcy Darnovsky, Subhadra Das, Charlene Galarneau, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Nora Ellen Groce, Tony Platt, Milton Reynolds, Marius Turda, Robert A Wilson, The Lancet | 05.21.2022

September, 1921 was unusually hot and New York was sweltering. For the many immigrants who crowded the city's tenements and pavements, one of the few places for relief from the incessant heat was the American Museum of Natural History. That...

A "Post-Human" Future?

Salary, Integrity and Selection of a New Chair for California’s $12 Billion Cell and Gene Therapy Enterprise

By David Jensen, The California Stem Cell Report | 05.20.2022

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash

The directors of the $12 billion California stem cell agency are looking for a new chair who is both decisive and collaborative, passionate and inclusive. But at the top of the wish list is...

Stem Cells

Video
A Dangerous Idea: Eugenics in America
Use Gene Editing to Treat Patients, Not Design Babies
CRISPR: What is the future of gene editing? | Start Here