News

A Chinese scientist horrified the world in 2018 when he revealed he had secretly engineered the birth of the world's first gene-edited babies.

His work was reviled as reckless and unethical because, among other reasons, gene-editing was so new...

INTRODUCTION

Baby bonuses. Motherhood medals. Fertility tracking. You may have heard of these policy proposals as solutions from the Trump administration to help encourage women to have more children.

Besides falling short of ensuring that people have what they need...

Adapted from Mitochondrial DNA at
National Human Genome Research Institute

Recently, media outlets around the world have been reporting on...

A newly available kind of genetic testing, called polygenic embryo screening, promises to screen for conditions that can include cancer...

eggs under microscope
By Amanda Mull, The Atlantic | 03.04.2019

One of the Instagram ads for Extend Fertility, a New York–based egg-freezing service for women, presents two images. First, there’s...

Two parents holding a baby
By Rich Gardella and Erika Edwards, NBC News | 03.04.2019

A Facebook post was what alerted Katelynn Gurbach to a massive tank malfunction at University Hospitals Fertility Center near Cleveland...

Gloved hand holding DNA results with dyed purple columns on clear plate
By Carl Zimmer, The New York Times | 03.01.2019

One night in November 1999, a 26-year-old woman was raped in a parking lot in Grand Rapids, Mich. Police officers...

Chinese flag
By Dennis Normile, Science | 02.28.2019

In the wake of the shocking news that one of its scientists had produced genetically altered babies, the Chinese government...

Blue human stem cell
By William Wan and Laurie McGinley, The Washington Post | 02.27.2019

After years of back pain, Timothy Lunceford decided in July to try an injection of umbilical cord blood, an unproven...

Blue strand of double helix DNA on black background
By Natalie Kofler, Nature | 02.26.2019

Millions were shocked to learn of the birth of gene-edited babies last year, but apparently several scientists were already in...

He Jiankui in a lab
By Jane Qiu, STAT | 02.25.2019

BEIJING — Three government institutions in China, including the nation’s science ministry, may have funded the “CRISPR babies” study that...

Double helix strand of DNA with backbone that is orange and bases that are green
By Carl Zimmer, The New York Times | 02.21.2019

In 1985, the chemist Steven A. Benner sat down with some colleagues and a notebook and sketched out a way...