News

Palantir Has a Hand in NIH’s Most Ambitious Health Initiative

By Julia Métraux, Mother Jones [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 07.07.2026

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...

U.S. Federal

The Measured Listener

By Daniel Shanahan, Los Angeles Review of Books | 05.31.2026

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...

U.S. States

These companies help parents try to pick their babies' traits. Experts are wary

By Rob Stein, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.06.2026

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

"These are saliva...

Genetic Selection

The start-ups dreaming of creating genetically modified babies

By Alexandre Piquard, Le Monde [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.22.2026

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

U.S. Federal
ivf graphic on grey background

'If we were a straight couple...': Understanding LGBTQ+ family-building experiences in the UK

By Jennifer Takhar, Carolyn Wilson-Nash, and Chloe He, BioNews | 06.22.2026

Imagine wanting to have a child and discovering, at every stage, that the system was not designed with you in...

Other Countries
an image of Donald Trump

HHS Pushes Fetal Personhood in New Grant Guidelines

By Anna Rogers, Mother Jones | 06.19.2026

“Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at the Prescott Valley Event Center in Prescott Valley, Arizona” by...

Policies
a graphic of DNA, a human body, and molecules

New NIH security rules for genomic data sets are slowing research, prompting workarounds

By Georgia Michelman, Science | 06.18.2026

In the spring of 2025, Andrew Lynn, a developmental cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Louisville (UofL), was starting a...

Policies
DNA on colorful background

Why the Human Genome’s Tangled Physicality May Confound AI

By Philip Ball, Quanta Magazine | 06.18.2026

Since its molecular structure was deduced in the 1950s, DNA has been hailed by many biologists as the secret of...

Genetic Selection
DNA strand on pink background

Good Lives

By Jan Grue, Boston Review | 06.17.2026

REVIEWED:

The Question of Unworthy Life: Eugenics and Germany’s Twentieth Century
Dagmar Herzog
Princeton University Press, 2024

The Life Worth...

Bioethics
DNA on a green background

These ‘master’ proteins protect us from deadly mutations — and could inspire new drugs

By Philip Ball , Nature | 06.17.2026

Our genomes are full of mutations that have the potential to damage our health or even kill us. Yet most...

Human Genetic Modification
a headshot of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

RFK Jr. Will Oversee Disability Education Policy

By Julia Métraux, Mother Jones | 06.16.2026

"Robert F. Kennedy Jr." by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons licensed under CC by SA 3.0

On Tuesday, the Trump administration...

U.S. Federal
DNA on dark background

I read the fine print on at-home DNA and health tests - watch out for these risks

By Elyse Betters Picaro , ZDNET | 06.13.2026

The kit arrives. It isn't big.

You get it out of the mailbox and bring it to your counter. It's...

U.S. Federal