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

2020 Was the Turning Point for CRISPR

By Emily Mullin, Future Human | 12.13.2020

Amid a raging global pandemic, the field of gene editing made major strides in 2020. For years, scientists have been...

Human Genetic Modification

When does genomics become eugenics?

By Eben Kirksey, Financial Review | 12.11.2020

Simply Google “BGI NIFTY” and you will find a slick website from China’s premier genomics company offering new...

Genomics

We Call DNA a Language. Is It?

By Luke Shors, Neo.Life | 12.10.2020

Fifty years before we solved it, long before its information began filling scientific headlines and pharmaceutical shelves, and even before...

Genomics

Gene therapy injected in one eye can travel to the other eye

By Clare Wilson, New Scientist | 12.09.2020

A gene therapy for a rare form of blindness seems to work well – but the genes injected into one...

Human Genetic Modification

Social Inequities Explain Racial Gaps in Pandemic, Studies Find

By Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 12.09.2020

When Dr. Gbenga Ogedegbe began to research coronavirus infections among Black and Hispanic patients, he thought he knew what he...

Perspectives

Interview: Nobel chemistry laureate Jennifer Doudna on the promise and peril of the genetic editing revolution

By John Mecklin, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists | 12.07.2020

Just weeks after I interviewed her this September, UC Berkeley professor Jennifer Doudna and her colleague Emmanuelle Charpentier were jointly...

Human Genetic Modification

China Is Reportedly Developing ‘Biologically Enhanced’ Soldiers. So Is the U.S.

By Emily Mullin, Future Human | 12.07.2020

China has reportedly conducted tests on members of its armed forces in hopes of developing soldiers with “biologically enhanced capabilities,”...

Human Genetic Modification

CRISPR and another genetic strategy fix cell defects in two common blood disorders

By Jocelyn Kaiser, Science | 12.05.2020

It is a double milestone: new evidence that cures are possible for many people born with sickle cell disease and...

Human Genetic Modification