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...

Stanford University campus, and edifice with three archways
By Antonio Regalado, MIT Technology Review | 02.07.2019

Officials at Stanford University have opened an investigation into what several high-profile faculty members knew about a Chinese effort to...

Forensic materials on a red background--gloves, crime scene tape, and evidence bags
By Megan Molteni, Wired | 02.06.2019

Police departments around the country are getting increasingly comfortable using DNA from non-criminal databases in the pursuit of criminal cases. On Tuesday...

He Jiankui speaks at the podium at the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing
By Rob Schmitz, NPR | 02.05.2019

In the fall of 2017, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV aired a series promoting China's achievements in science and technology. One...

Human embryo at four-cell stage on an aqua-colored background
By Sheryl Ubelacker, The National Post | 02.04.2019

TORONTO — Women who become pregnant using fertility treatments — particularly in-vitro fertilization — have a slightly higher risk of...

Different colored DNA letters descending down a wall
By The Editorial Board, The New York Times | 02.01.2019

Last month, the DNA-testing company 23andMe secured Food and Drug Administration approval for a new screening for gene-based health risks...

Pipet in a test tube
By Antonio Regalado, MIT Technology Review | 02.01.2019

At his keyboard in Austin, Texas, Bryan Bishop was writing quickly. A nationally ranked speed typist, he had drafted a...

Microscopic picture of egg cells and embryos
By Rob Stein, National Public Radio [cites Marcy Darnovsky] | 02.01.2019

A scientist in New York is conducting experiments designed to modify DNA in human embryos as a step toward someday...

A building on the Rice University campus
By Jane Qiu, STAT News | 01.31.2019

BEIJING — An American scientist at Rice University was far more involved in the widely condemned “CRISPR babies” experiment than...