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...

A gloved hand holds several connected test tubes filled with clear liquid.
By Anthony M. DeStefano, Newsday | 05.19.2017

A special state committee Friday approved a recommendation that New York State adopt the use of familial searching, an emerging...

Someone puts a coin into a piggy bank that has bandages on its side. A doctor's stethoscope surrounds the piggy bank.
By Maryam Zaringhalam, Slate | 05.18.2017

Which makes the AHCA’s removal of protections so much more frightening.

As currently written, the American Health Care Act allows...

Graphic of a double helix, with two nuceobase pairs highlighted as if being destroyed.
By Dietram A. Scheufele and David Beier, Scientific American | 05.18.2017

A report from the National Academies says scientists alone can't make the call—they must engage with the broader public

Meaningful...

Close up image of three double helixes positioned diagonally, and subtly highlighted.
By Abby Olena, The Scientist | 05.18.2017

Sangamo Therapeutics will use zinc finger nucleases to introduce the gene for a missing clotting factor into the livers of

...
A woman of color holds a circular glass object in her opened left palm.
By Jeremy Lent, Alternet | 05.17.2017

Will social inequality soon be programmed into our DNA?

The chasm between rich and poor in the world has become...

Two Q-tip swabs are vertically positioned next to each other. Blurred in the background, there is a container filled with other q-tips.
By Joel Winston, Medium | 05.17.2017

A word to the wise: Read the complete terms of service.

Don’t use the AncestryDNA testing service without actually reading the...

An illustrated graphic of a side-view of a human head. Their brain appears with six small double helix icons on the side.
By Parminder Deo and Jacqueline Paulis, NBC News | 05.17.2017

DNA is what makes us who we are. In humans, our genetic makeup is 99.9 percent similar to the person...

Portrait photo of Mildred Solomon
By Mildred Solomon, Hastings Center News | 05.16.2017

Hastings Center president Mildred Solomon delivered a keynote address at the Future of Medicine conference, a national health care conference...