Biopolitical Times

The Center for Genetics and Society blog highlights the latest developments in the social, political, and ethical implications of human biotechnologies, with contributions from staff, fellows, consultants, and guest authors.

graphic of DNA surrounded by checkmarks and x's next to a strand of dna merged with a person's silhouette

Sociogenomics and Polygenic Scores

By Peter Wehling, Tino Plümecke, and Isabelle Bartram | 03.26.2025

^{This article was originally published as “Soziogenomik und polygene Scores” in issue 272 (February 2025) of the German-language journal Gen-ethischer Informationsdienst (GID); translated by the authors.}

In mid-November 2024, the British organization Hope not Hate published its investigative research ‘Inside the Eugenics Revival’. In addition to documentating an active international “race research” network, the investigation also brought to light the existence of a US start-up that offers eugenic embryo selection. Heliospect Genomics aims to enable wealthy couples to...

Genetic Selection

On Woolly Mice, Resurrecting Mammoths, and Tech Bros

By Pete Shanks | 03.17.2025

Biopolitical Times

^{Riquet Mammoth Kakao (c.1920)

by Ludwig Hohlwein, Public Domain via Flickr}

Colossal, the de-extinction company, scored headlines (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) recently by announcing that they had created mice! Not just any mice, not even colossal mice, but genetically engineered, normal-size “woolly mice” that are the result of editing seven genes in mouse embryos. This Colossal presented as an important step toward making a specimen of charismatic megafauna – a...

Animal Biotechnologies

Gene Therapy Ups and Downs

By Katie Hasson | 02.26.2025

This month’s gene therapy news includes celebrations of promising new developments running beside gloomy takes on the future of the industry.

Early in February, a STAT headline quipped “The CRISPR companies are not OK”:

Interviews with over 75...

Media Coverage

Donald Trump, IVF, and Billionaires’ Babies

By Pete Shanks | 02.27.2025

President Trump scored a bunch of generally favorable mainstream headlines recently by announcing that he was ordering expanded access to in vitro fertilization (IVF). He had announced in October that he was “the father of IVF” although he also...

Genetic Selection

Biopolitical Times

Sociogenomics and Polygenic Scores

On Woolly Mice, Resurrecting Mammoths, and Tech Bros

Gene Therapy Ups and Downs

Donald Trump, IVF, and Billionaires’ Babies

How Much Do (Human) Eggs Really Cost?

A Deeper Dive Into the Colossal Furor

Stumbling Toward the End of an Era

Briefly Noted: Eugenics in Nature

A Pronatalist Vision of Humanity’s Future

Some Notable 2024 Blog Posts

Serving Two Masters: Trump Team’s Tensions on Reproductive Politics

South Africa Does Not Allow Heritable Human Genome Editing