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
George Church, professor at Harvard Medical School, was one of the organizers of a closed meeting on synthetic genomes.

Top scientists hold closed meeting to discuss building a human genome from scratch

By Ike Swetlitz, STAT | 05.13.2016

Over 130 scientists, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and government officials from five continents gathered at Harvard this week for an “exploratory” meeting...

Genomics
Locked gates at Harvard Yard during Occupy protests (Wikimedia)

Scientists Hold Secret Meeting to Consider Creating a Synthetic Human Genome

By Andrew Pollack, The New York Times | 05.13.2016
Untitled Document

Scientists are now contemplating the creation of a synthetic human genome, meaning they would use chemicals to manufacture...

Genomics

Federal Microbiome Project Aims to Solve Tiny Riddles of Science

By Gardiner Harris, The New York Times | 05.12.2016

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday will announce the latest in its scientific “moonshots,” this one in the red-hot...

U.S. Federal

In science, follow the money – if you can

By Paul D. Thacker & Curt Furberg, The Los Angeles Times | 05.12.2016
Untitled Document

In science as in politics, most people agree that transparency is essential. Top journals now require authors to...

Bioethics
Kendall Square, Cambridge, Mass. (Flickr)

After rivals’ IPOs, will CRISPR Therapeutics go public or stay buttoned-down?

By Damian Garde, STAT | 05.12.2016
Untitled Document

It has a license to one of the biggest scientific advances in history, and its rivals have made...

Human Genetic Modification
Paul Cézanne. Pyramid of Skulls, oil on canvas, c. 1901.

Meet The Scientists Fighting For More Studies On Genes And Racial Differences In Health

By Peter Aldhous, BuzzFeed | 05.11.2016
Untitled Document

Esteban Burchard is pissed. He’s angry that people of color are being sidelined by a medical revolution spawned...

Genetic Selection

Three Cambridge startups are on a mission to fix broken genes

By Robert Weisman, The Boston Globe | 05.11.2016
Untitled Document

A trio of startup companies rooted in the local life-sciences community is focusing on a task long seen...

Human Genetic Modification

Is academic achievement written into your DNA? It’s complicated

By Sharon Begley, STAT | 05.11.2016
Untitled Document

The largest study of its kind has found 74 genetic variants that influence how many years of school...

Bioethics