News

During his 2015 State of the Union address, then-President Barack Obama announced what he promised would be an ambitious public health project. “Tonight, I’m launching a new Precision Medicine Initiative to bring us closer to curing diseases like cancer and diabetes...

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...

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

"These are saliva...

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

Pipet in a test tube
By Sarah Mervosh, The New York Times | 02.17.2019

A Minnesota man was eating a hot dog at a hockey game when, the authorities said, he wiped his mouth...

Ancestry DNA kit and test tube
By Erin Brodwin, Business Insider | 02.16.2019

The data you shared with a genetic testing startup like 23andMe is private — for now.

But maintaining that privacy...

Girl holding man's finger
By Jacqueline Mroz, The New York Times | 02.16.2019

Danielle Teuscher decided to give DNA tests as presents last Christmas to her father, close friends and 5-year-old daughter, joining...

Several strands of blue DNA on a dark blue background
By Marc Montgomery, Radio Canada International | 02.13.2019

CRISPR is a recent technological breakthrough in simplifying gene editing,

It’s potential is enormous and at the same time it...

Two 23andMe at-home DNA testing kits
By Antonio Regalado, MIT Technology Review | 02.11.2019

As many people purchased consumer DNA tests in 2018 as in all previous years combined, MIT Technology Review has found...

Three test tubes nect to gloved hand
By Allison Lewis, Daily News | 02.08.2019

If you think clandestine DNA dragnets and secret databases are things of science fiction, I have some upsetting news.

From...

DNA inside a syringe on a blue background.
By Michael J. Joyner and Nigel Paneth, Stat | 02.07.2019

Twenty years ago, Dr. Francis Collins, who was then director of the National Center for Human Genome Research, made rosy...

Cotton swab in mouth
By David King, The Guardian | 02.07.2019

Genomics England’s plans to move into paid-for genome sequencing of healthy people has done more than raise eyebrows in the...