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

$5 Million Allotted: California Stem Cell Agency Receives 19 Applications for Research Targeting Covid-19

By David Jensen, California Stem Cell Report | 04.08.2020

Nineteen scientists seeking to crush the coronavirus submitted applications this week for research grants from the California stem cell agency...

Slow Science, Fast Science

By Daniel Sarewitz, Issues in Science and Technology | 04.07.2020

Science is moving fast right now. The novel coronavirus pandemic has created the conditions for rapid knowledge generation: about the...

Forced sterilization a symptom of ‘colonial hangover’ says lawyer

By Dennis Ward, Face to Face | 04.07.2020

More than 100 Indigenous women in Canada have come forward with stories of forced or coerced sterilization and lawyer Alisa...

Other Countries

The Surrogate is in Oregon. The Parents are in China. And the Baby is in Limbo.

By Libby Dowsett, The Oregonian/OregonLive | 04.05.2020

First-time gestational surrogate Shandi Phelps realized her life was about to take a bizarre turn when President Donald Trump announced...

Policies

Europe’s COVID-19 lockdown leaves new families in limbo in Ukraine

By Orlando Crowcroft & Marta Rodriguez Martinez, Euronews | 04.04.2020

This is not the way that Briton Nadene Ghouri had planned to spend the first six weeks of motherhood.

Holed...

Other Countries

I’m disabled and need a ventilator to live. Am I expendable during this pandemic?

By Alice Wong, Vox | 04.04.2020

It is a strange time to be alive as an Asian American disabled person who uses a ventilator. The coronavirus...

Society

Final Cyberspace Dash Underway for $5.5 Billion California Stem Cell Initiative

By David Jensen, California Stem Cell Report | 04.03.2020

The campaign to save California's stem cell research program from financial extinction is making an "unprecedented," electronic sprint to gather...

Stem Cells

Americans With Disabilities Are Terrified

By Elaine Godfrey, The Atlantic | 04.03.2020

Many Americans are anxious about contracting the novel coronavirus. Daniel Florio is absolutely terrified.

The 50-year-old lawyer from Maplewood, New...