News

'Superbabies' Startup Seeks Funds for Controversial Gene Editing Push

By Sophie Alexander and Ike Swetlitz, Bloomberg | 06.25.2025

A California-startup focused on genetically editing human embryos — a step toward creating so-called designer babies — is raising money as many of Silicon Valley’s ultra-rich turn their attention to one of the most controversial technologies in medicine.

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Patents & Other IP

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, obesity, autism, bipolar disorder, even celiac disease. These conditions are informed by many genetic variants and environmental factors - so...

Genetic Selection

Why Deleting Your 23andMe Data Is a Political Imperative

By Katie Sagaser, The DNA Exchange | 05.27.2025

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this piece are solely my own and do not represent those of my...

U.S. Federal

Trumpian “Common Sense” and the History of IQ Tests

By Pepper Stetler, Los Angeles Review of Books | 05.08.2025

^{"Donald Trump Signs The Pledge" by Michael Vadon

is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.}

This is...

Society

Detectives Just Used DNA To Solve A 1956 Double Homicide. They May Have Made History

By Sharon Pruitt-Young, NPR | 06.12.2021

It was only three days into 1956 when three boys from Montana, out for a hike on a normal January...

Genomics

Five fertility clinic patients awarded $15m after failure of freezing tank

By Edward Helmore, The Guardian | 06.12.2021

Five patients of a California fertility center have been awarded a total of $15m after a freezing tank failed, rendering...

U.S. Federal

Jury awards $15 million in landmark case over embryos, eggs destroyed in fertility clinic tank failure

By Derek Hawkins, The Washington Post | 06.11.2021

The devastating news landed in the inboxes of the fertility clinic patients early one morning in March 2018.

A tank...

U.S. Federal

IVF clinics that lie about success rates could face legal action, here's what you need to know

By Annabelle Spranklen, Glamour | 06.10.2021

IVF clinics that lie about success rates could face legal action, says regulator

Fertility clinics have been warned that they...

Policies

Are gene-editing technologies traditional? Not if they are linked to intellectual rights

By Kathleen Garnett, A Bigger Conversation | 06.09.2021

As we await the report on the UK government’s public consultation on ‘The Regulation of Genetic Technologies’ it is a...

Synthetic Biology

20 years after the human genome was first sequenced, dangerous gene myths abound

By Philip Ball, The Guardian | 06.09.2021

Twenty years ago, the science journal Nature published the first draft of the human genome: the sequence of chemical “letters”...

Society

a scientist doing lab research in a sterile environment

Expanding Biolab Complex in Berkeley Has Residents Worried

By Sharon Lerner, Lee Fang, The Intercept [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 06.09.2021

The Bayer Corporation has made it clear that the creation of a biological research facility on its waterfront property in Berkeley, California, will...

Bioethics

Unproven stem cell interventions: A global public health problem requiring global deliberation

By Zubin Master, Kirstin R.W. Matthews, and Mohamed Abou-el-Enein, Stem Cell Reports | 06.08.2021

The unproven stem cell intervention (SCI) industry is a global health problem. Despite efforts of some nations, the industry continues...

Policies