Scientist's Claim of Genetically-Edited Babies Renews Ethics Concerns

Aggregated News

https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101868471/scientists-claim-of-genetically-edited…

A scientist in China announced this week that he had created the world's first genetically-edited human babies. In an announcement that shocked many, including scientists and ethicists, He Jiankui said he altered a gene in the embryos of twin girls to make them resistant to H.I.V. Forum talks about the future and ethics of using new gene editing tools like CRISPR to create genetically-altered humans.

Guests:

Marcy Darnovsky, executive director, Center for Genetics and Society

Dr. Fyodor Urnov, visiting researcher, Innovative Genomics Institute at UC Berkeley; former vice president, Sangamo

Dr. Alex Marson, head of UC San Francisco's Marson Lab

Technologies

Human Genetic Modification

Global Governance

Bioethics

There Be Gold in Them Thar Genes

By Pete Shanks | 02.24.2021

Biopolitical Times

We were shocked — shocked — to learn that 23andMe is cashing in on its customers’ spit. $3.5 billion, the company is worth, they say, now that it’s going public. That is an awful lot of $99 gene tests! Except that the business model is not, and never has been, about cash flow from individual customers. No, the big money is in leasing out genetic data to pharmaceutical companies and other researchers.

Forgive us, just this once: We told...

Genomics

A Cloned Ferret!

By Pete Shanks | 02.24.2021

Biopolitical Times

"Black-footed Ferret Kits" by USFWS Mountain Prairie is licensed under CC BY 2.0 The New York Times published on February 18 an enthusiastic article about a black-footed ferret, hailing it as “the first of any native, endangered animal species in North America to be cloned.”

Animal Biotechnologies

Who Should Stop Unethical A.I.?

By Matthew Hutson, The New Yorker | 02.15.2021

Aggregated News

In computer science, the main outlets for peer-reviewed research are not journals but conferences, where accepted papers are presented in the form of talks or posters. In June, 2019, at a large artificial-intelligence conference in Long Beach, California, called Computer...

Society

Bluebird suspends studies of sickle cell gene therapy following cancer diagnoses in two more treated patients

By Adam Feuerstein, STAT | 02.16.2021

Aggregated News

Bluebird Bio said Tuesday that it has suspended clinical trials involving its gene therapy for sickle cell disease after receiving reports that two patients treated with the one-time therapy were diagnosed with cancer.

The trials were placed on “temporary suspension”...

Human Genetic Modification

Scientist's Claim of Genetically-Edited Babies Renews Ethics Concerns

Perspectives

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