News

These companies help parents try to pick their babies' traits. Experts are wary

By Rob Stein, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.06.2026

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

"These are saliva samples as well as blood," says Schleede, a geneticist who runs Herasight Inc.'s lab in Morrisville, N.C. "We also...

Genetic Selection

The Measured Listener

By Daniel Shanahan, Los Angeles Review of Books | 05.31.2026

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...

U.S. States

The start-ups dreaming of creating genetically modified babies

By Alexandre Piquard, Le Monde [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.22.2026

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

U.S. Federal

Natural Election

By Jonathan Basile, Los Ángeles Review of Books | 04.29.2026

WILLIAM BATESON, a foundational figure in the science of genetics at the turn of the last century, once recounted the...

Society

What Is 23andMe Doing With Your DNA?

By Kara Swisher, The New York Times | 09.20.2021

Anne Wojcicki is sitting on a treasure trove of genetic data. Wojcicki, a co-founder and the chief executive of the...

U.S. Federal

Scientists should counter the myth of biological race

By Marcia L. O’Connell, Zachariah I. Grochau-Wright, and Christopher T. Fisher, The Philadelphia Inquirer | 09.20.2021

The University of Pennsylvania’s medical school apologized last month for unethical experiments on incarcerated, mostly Black men, often without their...

Society

a magnifying glass shows a strand of DNA in front of a background of multicolored squares

“Gattaca” and the Ethics of Genetic Selection

By David K. Johnson, The Great Courses Daily [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 09.19.2021

The film Gattaca is set in a world in which gene manipulation is common. When parents decide to have children...

Genetic Selection

Jeopardy!, Eugenics and Me

By Cynthia Greenlee, Harper's Bazaar | 09.17.2021

In 1994, when I heard my beloved game show Jeopardy! was searching for college contestants, I somehow convinced my parents...

Eugenics

Temple researchers take another step toward curing HIV

By Marie McCullough, The Philadelphia Inquirer | 09.17.2021

In 2014, Temple University researchers proved they could use state-of-the-art molecular scissors to cut out dormant HIV hiding in human...

Human Genetic Modification

Picking Embryos With Best Health Odds Sparks New DNA Debate

By Carey Goldberg, Bloomberg | 09.17.2021

Rafal Smigrodzki won’t make a big deal of it, but someday, when his toddler daughter Aurea is old enough to...

Genetic Selection

Biology Starts to Get a Technological Makeover

By Steve Lohr, The New York Times | 09.16.2021

^{Photo by igemhq on Flickr}

BOSTON — Two white-coated lab technicians, seated at work stations in a corner, are vastly...

Synthetic Biology

An anti-racist action plan for studying the human genome

By Eric D. Green, The Hill | 09.16.2021

^{Image Credit: Ernesto Del Aguila III, Courtesy of NHGRI}

Throughout my career as a leader in genomics, I have frequently...

U.S. Federal