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...

Black and white photo of Wall Street.
By Ben Fidler, Xconomy | 09.12.2016

Investors hoping to buy into the vast, yet still unproven drugmaking potential of the gene editing system CRISPR-Cas9 will soon...

Embryonic bodies.
By Sheila Black, The New York Times | 09.07.2016

When I was pregnant with my first child, my ob-gyn referred me to a genetic counselor “just in case.”

I...

Bird's eye view of test tube rack filled with test tubes.
By Sheila Kaplan, STAT | 09.07.2016

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday warned women and their doctors that current screening tests for ovarian cancer are...

An individual clasps hands over face, suggesting feelings of being overwhelmed or stressed.
By Nicola Davis, The Guardian | 09.07.2016

Women are choosing to freeze their eggs to gain time to find the right partner rather than to pursue their...

A fire burns
By Claire Hope Cummings, Project Syndicate | 09.06.2016

A cynical move is underway to promote a new, powerful, and troubling technology known as “gene drives” for use in...

Black and white pressure gauge reaches almost its maximum intensity.
By Gretchen Vogel, Science Magazine | 09.06.2016

The scandal surrounding Paolo Macchiarini, the former star surgeon who became famous for his pioneering trachea transplants, has prompted yet another...

A candle, against a dark background, burns at the corner of the image.
By Bryan Marquard, Boston Globe | 09.05.2016

By 1974, when she became the first female biology professor to be awarded tenure at Harvard University, Ruth Hubbard was...

An individual's torso is pictured, wearing a gray business suit. The individual's hand is buried in their suit pocket, holding euros.
By David Jensen, The Sacramento Bee | 09.01.2016

The former president of the $3 billion California stem cell agency received $443,500 in total compensation from the Bay Area...