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...

Side view angle of the Senate side of the US Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
By Charlotte Huff, Kaiser Health News | 06.29.2017

Two years ago, Cheasanee Huette, a 20-year-old college student in Northern California, decided to find out if she was a...

Attorney General Jeff Sessions stands behind podium at a press conference. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly are looking towards him from the side.
By Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post | 06.29.2017

Leading U.S. science organizations called on the Justice Department to renew an abandoned partnership with independent scientists to help raise...

A female scientist looks closely at a dye marker on agarose gel used to separate DNA
By Jim Kozubek, STAT | 06.26.2017

The ruckus over the CRISPR gene-editing system hides a dark reality: its high cost may make it unaffordable and questions...

Four transparent panels displaying letters "ATCG (representing DNA bases).
By Sharon Begley, STAT | 06.26.2017

For all the promises of genomics ushering in a new era in medicine, with scientists regularly urging people to get...

A laboratory scientist, in goggles, and protective gear, holds a pipette and concentrates on placing a sample of liquid into a test tube.
By Jim Petro, Cincinnati- USA Today Network | 06.19.2017

As a state legislator, I served on the House committee that drafted Ohio’s current death penalty law. Later, as Ohio...

An unused 23andMe kit, displayed with box open and containing specimen bag, cotton swab, and vile container.
By Jessica Cussins, The Pharmaceutical Journal | 06.19.2017

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has, for the first time, granted permission to a company to provide limited...

Photo of Charpentier presenting, with a picture of microscopic cells in the background.
By Sarah Buhr, Tech Crunch | 06.19.2017

Continuing the patent dispute internationally, China has now given the Charpentier/Doudna side a patent to edit genes in the country.

CRISPR...

Portrait photo of a Cambodian woman smiling, while sitting on the ground.
By South China Morning Post | 06.18.2017

Peeling a mango inside her rickety wooden shack, Chhum Long explained how her daughter’s decision to nurture a Western couple’s...