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.

Bootstrap Bio...

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
test tubes in rack

Change may allow scientists to grow human embryos longer

By Maria Cheng, Associated Press [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 05.26.2021

New guidelines released Wednesday remove a decades-old barrier to stem cell research, recommending that researchers be allowed to grow human...

Human Genetic Modification
a black and white cow staring straight ahead

The hunt for the master cow that will feed the world

By Matt Reynolds, Wired UK | 05.25.2021

Laura Domigan is a chronicler of cows. Every biographical detail and pharmacological footnote could be crucial, so the biochemist has...

Animal Biotechnologies
stethoscope on baby's back

Bubble Baby Families Denied ‘Compassionate Use’ of Live-Saving Therapy

By David Jensen, Substack | 05.25.2021

Update 5/28: Orchard Exits Life-Saving Bubble-Baby Research in Wake of Flap Over Patient Access

A gene therapy company backed by...

Society
light shining on neuron

Scientists Partially Restored a Blind Man’s Sight With New Gene Therapy

By Carl Zimmer, New York Times | 05.24.2021

Photo by McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT
 licensed for use under Creative Commons Attributions 2.5

A team of...

Human Genetic Modification

The Risks of Gene Editing

By Stuart A. Newman and M.L. Tina Stevens, The New York Review | 05.23.2021
In response to: Editing Humanity’s Future from the April 29, 2021 issue

In her recent review of four books on...

Human Genetic Modification
hospital bed

These Sisters With Sickle Cell Had Devastating, and Preventable, Strokes

By Gina Kolata and Ilana Panich-Linsman, New York Times | 05.23.2021

It was 4 a.m. on a Sunday when Dana Jones heard an ominous sound, barely audible over the whirring of...

Perspectives
conference room

Need Public Policy for Human Gene Editing, Heatwaves, or Asteroids? Try Thinking Like a Citizen

By Nicholas Weller, Michelle Sullivan Govani, Mahmud Farooque, Issues in Science and Technology | 05.19.2021

In a ballroom at the Arizona Science Center one afternoon in 2017, more than 70 Phoenix residents—students, teachers, nurses, and...

Civil Society

The Promise and Perils of the New Fertility Entrepreneurs

By Anna Louie Sussman, The New Yorker | 05.19.2021

France Brunel, who is thirty-six, first considered freezing her eggs after ending a two-year relationship, in 2018. She’s not sure...

Media Coverage