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...

By Sac Bee, Sacramento Bee | 11.24.2008

After three years and an expenditure of $600 million, the governance of California's stem cell research institute is starting to...

By Gethin Chamberlain, The Observer | 11.23.2008

The birth of Rekha's second daughter should have been one of the happiest days of her life. Instead, she lay...

By Nicholas Wade, New York Times | 11.20.2008
Scientists are talking for the first time about the old idea of resurrecting extinct species as if this staple of...
By Erika Check Hayden, Nature | 11.19.2008
Couples might soon use the technologies sold by personal-genomics companies to choose the genetic make-up of their children.

Last week...
Press Statement

Center for Genetics and Society to testify on governance of California's stem cell agency "Little Hoover Commission" to hold public hearing tomorrow on the $3 billion program

Jesse Reynolds, Project Director on Biotechnology in the Public Interest at the Center for Genetics and Society, will testify tomorrow before California’s Little Hoover Commission, a bipartisan, independent state body that promotes efficiency and effectiveness in state programs.

The hearing is the first public session of the Commission’s study of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The study will include issues of governance, transparency, accountability and the use of state bond funds.

Public hearing on the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
Little Hoover Commission
Thursday November 20 at 9 AM
Room 4203 of the State Capitol in Sacramento

The Little Hoover Commission’s study was prompted by a request from Senator Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), who heads the state Senate Health Committee, and Senator George Runner (R-Antelope Valley). A bill that they authored, which included the request, was passed overwhelmingly by the California legislature, but vetoed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Also invited to testify at Thursday’s session are CIRM Chair Robert Klein and President Alan Trounson. The Commission will also hear testimony from a panel of two law professors and another panel of two representatives from institutions who have applied for and received grant money from CIRM. Joining Jesse Reynolds on a panel of consumer advocates will be John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog.

For more information, see the Little Hoover Commission’s website, its description of its review of CIRM, and its agenda of Thursday’s meeting. Jesse Reynolds’s submitted testimony is available on request on an embargoed basis. It will be posted on the Center’s website at 9 a.m. on Thursday November 20. 


Contact:
Jesse Reynolds
510-625-0819 x308
510-410-0242
jreynolds[AT]geneticsandsociety[DOT]org


Marcy Darnovsky
510-625-0819 x305
510-913-7714
mdarnovsky[AT]geneticsandsociety[DOT]org


 

By Elizabeth Fernandez, San Francisco Chronicle | 11.18.2008
Infants conceived as a result of infertility treatments are two to four times more likely to have certain types of...
By Martin Johnson, New Zealand Herald | 11.18.2008
Sarah North has decided to have a newly available fertility test to see if she should start having babies straight...
By Simon Hart and Laura Donnelly, The Telegraph (UK) | 11.16.2008

An American professor is preparing to market a form of canine gene therapy, which would see dogs injected with substances...