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

"The Code Breaker": Jennifer Doudna and how CRISPR may revolutionize mankind

By David Pogue, CBS News | 03.07.2021

When Jennifer Doudna won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry last year, there was no black-tie ceremony in Sweden. Because...

Genetic Selection

DNA databases are too white, so genetics doesn’t help everyone. How do we fix that?

By Tina Hesman Saey, Science News | 03.04.2021

It’s been two decades since the Human Genome Project first unveiled a rough draft of our genetic instruction book. The...

Biotech & Pharma

America’s love of free markets extends to its fertility clinics

By Staff, The Economist | 03.03.2021

Every time one of America’s genetic-testing companies advertises a deal on DNA kits, Michael (not his real name) braces himself...

Assisted Reproduction

How to create a more inclusive future post-COVID

By Alice Wong, Mashable | 03.03.2021

There are two major lessons to be learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Alice Wong, founder and director of...

Bioethics

The New Wave of Anti-Trans Legislation Sure Looks a Lot Like Eugenics

By Evan Urquhart, Slate | 03.03.2021

^{Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash}

A huge wave of anti-transgender legislation is coursing through statehouses in the early months...

U.S. States

The beautiful science of embryology

By Kate Womersley, Prospect | 03.03.2021

It’s a familiar story: the virile sperm fights its path through the hostile uterus to the passive female egg. After...

Assisted Reproduction

CRISPR rivals put patents aside to help in fight against Covid-19

By Walter Isaacson, STAT | 03.03.2021

In early January 2020, Feng Zhang, a gene-editing researcher at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, started getting emails...

Human Genetic Modification

The World Must Regulate Tech Before It’s Too Late

By Vivek Wadhwa, Tarun Wadhwa, Foreign Policy | 03.01.2021

A century’s worth of change is about to be squeezed into a single decade. By 2030, entire industries are likely...

Human Genetic Modification