THE CODE: The Code is a three-part video series investigating the roots of today’s most promising genetic technologies
By Text: Sharon Begley Video: Retro Report,
STAT
| 04. 02. 2018
Those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it. And those who do not remember the sometimes irrational exuberance around past advances in biomedicine may be doomed to buy into the hype around today’s. From curing Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s to eliminating cancer deaths, no goal has been too ambitious for the best minds in medicine to claim is within reach thanks to the latest scientific discovery.
Here is your genetic gut check.
This three-part series of documentary shorts, produced by Retro Report in partnership with STAT, looks back at the roots of three of today’s most promising genetic technologies: genetic testing to predict which diseases someone might develop, precision medicine to match people’s genes to the treatments most likely to work for them, and genome-editing via CRISPR to repair disease-causing genes. Watch and listen to experts explain how the 1980s and 1990s version of each was going to change medicine and save lives. It puts today’s promises in a whole new light.
PART 1

The race to sequence the human genome was also billed as a race...
Related Articles
The Center for Genetics and Society is delighted to recommend the current edition of GMWatch Review – Number 589. UK-based GMWatch, a long-standing ally, was founded in 1998 by Jonathan Matthews as an independent organization seeking to counter the enormous corporate political power and propaganda of the GMO industry and its supporters. Matthews and Claire Robinson are its directors and managing editors.
CGS works to ensure that social justice, equity, human rights, and democratic governance are front...
By Ryan Cross, Endpoints News | 08.19.2025
Human eggs are incredibly rare cells. The ovary typically produces only 400 mature eggs across a woman’s life. But biologists in George Church’s lab at Harvard University — a group that’s never content with nature’s limits — just got a...
By Katherine Drabiak, Journal of Medical Ethics Forum | 08.07.2025
Adapted from Mitochondrial DNA at
National Human Genome Research Institute
Recently, media outlets around the world have been reporting on children born from pronuclear genome transfer (sometimes called “3-parent IVF,” “mitochondrial donation” or “mitochondrial replacement therapy”) at Newcastle Fertility Center...
By Nicky Hudson, The Conversation | 08.12.2025