News

'Superbabies' Startup Seeks Funds for Controversial Gene Editing Push

By Sophie Alexander and Ike Swetlitz, Bloomberg | 06.25.2025

A California-startup focused on genetically editing human embryos — a step toward creating so-called designer babies — is raising money as many of Silicon Valley’s ultra-rich turn their attention to one of the most controversial technologies in medicine.

Bootstrap Bio...

Patents & Other IP

Can doctors test embryos for autism? And should they?

By Brittany Luse, Liam McBain, and Neena Pathak, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.28.2025

A newly available kind of genetic testing, called polygenic embryo screening, promises to screen for conditions that can include cancer, obesity, autism, bipolar disorder, even celiac disease. These conditions are informed by many genetic variants and environmental factors - so...

Genetic Selection

Why Deleting Your 23andMe Data Is a Political Imperative

By Katie Sagaser, The DNA Exchange | 05.27.2025

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this piece are solely my own and do not represent those of my...

U.S. Federal

Trumpian “Common Sense” and the History of IQ Tests

By Pepper Stetler, Los Angeles Review of Books | 05.08.2025

"Donald Trump Signs The Pledge" by Michael Vadon 
is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

This is...

Society

<i>Cracked Open</i>: New Book Looks at Fertility and Reproductive Technology

By Rachel, Our Bodies Our Blog | 04.30.2013
Our Bodies Ourselves board member Miriam Zoll has a new book coming out on May 1, Cracked Open: Liberty, Fertility...
Bioethics

Patenting Parthenotes: High Court Asks if Parthenotes are 'Human Embryos' Under the Biotech Directive

By Antony Blackburn-Starza, BioNews | 04.29.2013

The UK's High Court has asked the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to clarify if human parthenotes...

Reproductive Justice, Health & Rights

DNA at 60: Still Much to Learn

By Philip Ball, Scientific American | 04.28.2013
This week's diamond jubilee of the discovery of DNA's molecular structure rightly celebrates how Francis Crick, James Watson and their...
Biopolitics

Your Genetic Make Up to be Stored, Without Consent, for Profit

By TechEye, TechEye | 04.25.2013

Dr Helen Wallace, director of GeneWatch UK, warned at a MedConfidential event in London that beyond electronically storing...

Bioethics

Harvard Professor Re-Identifies Anonymous Volunteers In DNA Study

By Adam Tanner, Forbes | 04.25.2013
A Harvard professor has re-identified the names of more than 40% of a sample of anonymous participants in a high-profile...
Biotech & Pharma

Why Predicting the Phenotypic Effect of Mutations is Hard

By Caroline Wright, Genomes Unzipped | 04.25.2013
By now, we’re probably all  familiar with Niels Bohr’s famous quote that “prediction is very difficult, especially about the...
Biotech & Pharma

Never Mind Humanity

By Ari Schulman, The American Conservative | 04.25.2013
One might think that if someone ever figured out how to create a mind—if the secret of human thought were...
Synthetic Biology

How are Humans Going to Become Extinct?

By Sean Coughlan, BBC News | 04.25.2013

What are the greatest global threats to humanity? Are we on the verge of our own unexpected extinction?

An international...

Human Genetic Modification