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

Police May Not Need a Warrant to Rummage Through Your Trash, But Warrantless Collection of DNA Is Unconstitutional

By Jennifer Lynch, Electronic Frontier Foundation | 03.11.2020

This week, we filed an amicus brief in a South Dakota case arguing that the Fourth Amendment prohibits the police...

Policies

Students' Genes Cannot Accurately Predict Educational Achievement

By University of Bristol, Phys Org | 03.11.2020

Pupils' genetic data do not predict their educational outcomes with sufficient accuracy and shouldn't be used to design a genetically...

Genomics

How Tech Will Change Fertility

By Claire Tomkins, Forbes | 03.09.2020

In the U.S., birthrates have dipped to an all-time low of 1.73 births per mother.

More than anything, this is...

Assisted Reproduction

Can We Bring Back Mammoths From Extinction? Probably Not — Here’s Why

By Riley Black, Discover | 03.09.2020

The last mammoths were in trouble. Isolated on Wrangel Island, a spit of land off the coast of Siberia, the...

Genomics

close-up photo of a researcher wearing a mask

Want to Do Better Science? Admit You’re Not Objective

By Angela Saini, Nature | 03.09.2020

One of the world’s leading universities — University College London (UCL) — has completed an inquiry into its support for...

Society

Curing HIV and sickle cell falls short if the most vulnerable populations are left out

By Francis S Collins, Fortune | 03.08.2020

The year was 1984. I was finishing my medical genetics training at Yale, working on the molecular genetics of disorders...

Society

Doctors Try 1st CRISPR Editing in the Body for Blindness

By The Associated Press, The New York Times | 03.04.2020

Scientists say they have used the gene editing tool CRISPR inside someone's body for the first time, a new frontier...

Human Genetic Modification

You Can Learn a Lot About Yourself From a DNA Test. Here's What Your Genes Cannot Tell You

By Libby Copeland, TIME | 03.02.2020

“Have you found an article of clothing with a suspicious stain?” asks the website of one Florida-based company called All...

Bioethics