News

During his 2015 State of the Union address, then-President Barack Obama announced what he promised would be an ambitious public health project. “Tonight, I’m launching a new Precision Medicine Initiative to bring us closer to curing diseases like cancer and diabetes...

This is the 15th installment in the Legacies of Eugenics series, which features essays by leading thinkers devoted to exploring the history of eugenics and the ways it shapes our present. You can read the first part here. The series...

Justin Schleede reaches onto a black lab bench to pick up a tray of small plastic tubes.

"These are saliva...

"If proven to be safe, we believe preventive gene editing could be one of the most important health technologies of...

A Tasmanian tiger
By Editorial, The Guardian | 08.19.2022

"tasmanian tiger" by nicolas.boullosa is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

The last official sighting of a Tasmanian...

a gavel next to a gold plaque that says "patent law"
By Joe Mullin, Electronic Frontier Foundation | 08.18.2022

recently introduced patent bill would authorize patents on abstract ideas just for including computer jargon, and would even legalize...

a golden dna strand
By Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 08.17.2022

After 10 years of effort, medical researchers at Columbia University have developed a very fast and cheap way to detect...

the official FDA building with a sign in front
By Zachary Brennan, Endpoints News | 08.17.2022

The FDA on Wednesday approved the first gene therapy for a chronic condition — bluebird bio’s new Zynteglo (beti-cel) as...

a display of all chromosomes
By Bonnie Rochman, MIT Technology Review | 08.16.2022

When Ollie’s mother, Katie, was nine weeks pregnant, her obstetrician-gynecologist’s office in Boulder, Colorado, offered her a special $100 price...

Image of the australian flag
By James Fair, Discover Wildlife | 08.16.2022

Photo by Stephen Tafra on Unsplash

Plans to bring back the thylacine or Tasmanian tiger, also known as thylacine –...

Image of a grain field
By Jonathan Matthews and Claire Robinson, GMWatch | 08.14.2022

Photo by Polina Rytova on Unsplash

Science Magazine recently published a paper in which Chinese scientists reported massive yield gains...

Image of genes
By Mark Terry, BioSpace | 08.12.2022

Novartis’ gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) has had a complicated history, of which there is a...