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...

Protesters hold a yellow sign that reads, "race to the bottom??"
By Craig Calhoun, The World Post | 08.03.2017

Unless we pay much more attention to ethical and social choices, we risk turning the promise of gene editing into

...
Double helix figure that is diagonally positioned. Several base pairs are highlighted with different colors.
By Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post [cites Marcy Darnovsky] | 08.02.2017

Scientists have successfully edited the DNA of human embryos to erase a heritable heart condition that is known for causing sudden death...

Microscopic image an oocyte
By Rob Stein, NPR [cites Marcy Darnovsky] | 08.02.2017

Scientists have been tinkering with the DNA in humans and other living things for decades. But one thing has long...

 A human oocyte is held by a glass holding pipette (left). A beveled glass pipette containing an immobilized ejaculated spermatozoon is inserted through the zona pellucida and deep into the oolemma, creating a deep furrow. Once the membrane of the oocyte is penetrated, the sperm is deposited therein.
By Dan Vergano and Tom Chivers, BuzzFeed [cites Marcy Darnovsky] | 08.02.2017

Researchers have erased a genetic glitch that causes heart defects in dozens of human embryos with surprising success, fixing the...

A baby dressed in a shirt, diapers, and cap, floats mid-air.
By Rowan Jacobsen, Mother Jones [cites Marcy Darnovsky] | 08.01.2017

Last week, US scientists edited a human embryo for the first time. That’s just the beginning.

The first step is...

Grayscale image of an eight cell embryo
By Jessica Firger, Newsweek | 08.01.2017

Late last week, reports emerged that scientists in Oregon had used gene-editing technology, known as CRISPR-Cas9, to edit a human...

A black mother holds two babies in her arms. the babies look curiously out the nearby window.
By Kristen V. Brown, Gizmodo | 07.31.2017

Today in America, if you are poor, you are also more likely to suffer from poor health. Low socioeconomic status—and...

A double helix,positioned diagonally.
By Steve Connor, MIT Technology Review | 07.26.2017

Researchers have demonstrated they can efficiently improve the DNA of human embryos.

The first known attempt at creating genetically modified...