CGS in the News

The quest to create gene-edited babies gets a reboot

By Rob Stein, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 08.06.2025

A Chinese scientist horrified the world in 2018 when he revealed he had secretly engineered the birth of the world's first gene-edited babies.

His work was reviled as reckless and unethical because, among other reasons, gene-editing was so new...

Genetic Selection

Can doctors test embryos for autism? And should they?

By Brittany Luse, Liam McBain, and Neena Pathak, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.28.2025

A newly available kind of genetic testing, called polygenic embryo screening, promises to screen for conditions that can include cancer...

Genetic Selection
Black, purple, and blue galaxy in the back with a mirrored image of a young girl looking at each other.

We’re Getting Closer to Cloning Humans. Here’s What’s Stopping Us.

By Claudia Geib, Futurism [cites CGS] | 04.16.2018

If sci-fi writers of the past somehow visited us today, they might wonder: where are all the clones?

As recently...

Society
A small, pink ceramic piggy bank is nestled in the middle of a woven basket full of golden eggs.

The Business of Making a Baby

By Lindsey J. Smith, San Francisco Magazine [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 03.23.2018

After spending her 20s as an aid worker in Africa and India, Helena moved to the Bay Area in 2012...

Assisted Reproduction
University Hospitals building in Cleveland, Ohio

Fertility clinic failures raise question of regulation in industry

By Ginger Christ, The Plain Dealer [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 03.21.2018

CLEVELAND, Ohio - After two recent failures of cryotanks storing eggs and embryos, a number of agencies and organizations are...

Assisted Reproduction
Josiah Zayner

No Self-Editing: Biohacker Josiah Zayner Can’t Stop Living Out Loud

By Alex Lash, Xconomy [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 03.13.2018

Gene editing has arrived. Of the various forms of the technology, CRISPR-Cas9 is the easiest to use, and it’s already...

Synthetic Biology
Three palm trees by the ocean in Southern California

Will California's $3 billion in stem cell spending pay off? First royalty check arrives

By David Jensen, The Sacramento Bee [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 03.01.2018

Back in 2004, when California's stem cell agency was little more than an idea in the minds of researchers, its...

Stem Cells
Male and Female symbol

You Can Control Your Baby's Sex — If You Believe In Babydust

By Rebecca Gale, Refinery29 [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 02.16.2018
It was 2011 and Kathryn Taylor was ready to get pregnant — with a boy. “I wanted a boy first...
Bioethics
An undifferentiated cell being differentiated into different cells. A switch is used to symbolize the changes made that allow the cell to differentiate differently.

'Less Than a Drop in the Bucket' -- Dueling Perspectives on California's First Stem Cell Royalty Check

By David Jensen, California Stem Cell Report [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 02.14.2018

California is counting its first royalties from a 13-year-old effort to develop stem cell cures and has declared that it...

Policies
Illustration of cells

The Inconvenient History of IVF

By Pete Shanks, Medium | 02.02.2018

Let’s Not Distort Debates about Human Cloning and Heritable Gene Editing

Cloning is back in the headlines. Researchers managed to...

Assisted Reproduction