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

CRISPR Madness: Welcome to the Age of Genetic Chaos

By Stuart A. Newman, CounterPunch | 05.05.2021

The Nobel prize in chemistry awarded last year to the biochemists Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier for the genetic modification...

Genetic Selection

Scientists Have Created A New Gene-Editing Tool That Could Outperform CRISPR

By Derya Ozdemir, Interesting Engineering | 05.03.2021

A new gene-editing tool has enabled Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering scientists to accomplish a feat that wouldn't...

Genetic Selection

Most Australian women using IVF pay for add-on treatments with ‘weak’ evidence behind them, research finds

By Joseph Dunstan, ABC News | 05.03.2021

Most women undergoing IVF treatment in Australia are paying for one or more add-on treatments, despite limited proof of their...

Other Countries

Six patients with dementia went to Mexico for an unproven gene therapy, a biotech CEO claims

By Megan Molteni, STAT | 05.03.2021

Six patients with dementia traveled to Mexico last year to be injected with a gene therapy not authorized for use...

Society

Should scientists be allowed to grow human embryos in a dish beyond 14 days? Is it scientifically important or morally wrong?

By Karen Weintraub, USA Today [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 05.02.2021

For more than 30 years, scientists have followed a rule they imposed on themselves to avoid growing a human embryo in...

Society

For Rosa Reveals The Ugly History Of Forced Sterilizations

By Cristina Escobar, Refinery29 | 04.30.2021

^{“Stop Forced Sterilization” poster by Rachael Romero, San Francisco Poster Brigade, 1977

Courtesy of Rachael Romero through Library of Congress...}

Eugenics