Tempest in a spit cup
By Robert Sanders,
UC Berkeley Media Relations
| 09. 10. 2010
[Cites CGS]
BERKELEY - A controversial UC Berkeley program to analyze three genes in the DNA of incoming students culminates next week with a keynote address and the first of a series of panel discussions and lectures that will run through October.
Organizers and critics alike hope these events will spark a campus-wide discussion of the pros and cons of genetic testing and the promise or peril of personalized medicine.
A Sept. 13 lecture, "Looking for the Good News in Your Genome," by campus geneticist Jasper Rine, will set the stage with a discussion of the promise new DNA technologies hold for improving human health.
Highlights of additional events include:
- A Sept. 14 faculty panel discussion on "Genes & Behavior"
- A Sept. 16 panel on "Direct-to-Consumer DNA Testing" that includes representatives from the genetic testing industry and genetic privacy groups
- Panel discussions on "Fictionalizing Science and the Genome" and the "Uses and Abuses of Genomic Knowledge" on Sept. 20 and 21, respectively
- A final keynote address on Sept. 29, "Personal Genomics and Public Angst," by Alta Charo, a special advisor to the...
Related Articles
By Carly Mallenbaum, Axios [cites Emily Galpern] | 03.29.2026
More Americans are turning to surrogacy to build their families, as the practice becomes more common and more publicly discussed.
Why it matters: As surrogacy becomes more visible and accessible, ethical, legal and cultural tensions become harder to ignore...
By Carly Mallenbaum, Axios [cites Surrogacy360] | 03.29.2026
Without a federal law, surrogacy in the U.S. is governed by a patchwork of state regulations/
Why it matters: Confusing, varied local rules can determine everything from whether agreements are legally binding to who is recognized as a parent at...
Cathy Tie seems to be good at starting businesses but not so dedicated to maintaining them. CGS, like many others, first heard of her thanks to Caiwei Chen and Antonio Regalado in MIT Technology Review, May 2025, as the partner (perhaps bride) of the notorious Chinese scientist He Jiankui, described in the headline as “China’s Frankenstein.” He prefers “Chinese Darwin.” She ran his Twitter account for a while, contributing such gems as:
Get in luddite, we’re going gene editing...
By Laura DeFrancesco, Nature Biotechnology | 03.17.2026
The first gene editors designed to fix genetic lesions in mutation-agnostic ways are poised to enter the clinic. Tessera Therapeutics and Alltrna, two Flagship Pioneering-funded companies, are gearing up to test novel genetic medicines in humans. Tessera received regulatory clearance...
