CGS in the News

US startup charging couples to ‘screen embryos for IQ’

By Hannah Devlin, Tom Burgis, David Pegg, and Jason Wilson, The Guardian [cites CGS’ Katie Hasson] | 10.18.2024

A US startup company is offering to help wealthy couples screen their embryos for IQ using controversial technology that raises questions about the ethics of genetic enhancement.

The company, Heliospect Genomics, has worked with more than a dozen couples undergoing...

Genetic Selection

South Africa amended its research guidelines to allow for heritable human genome editing

By Françoise Baylis and Katie Hasson, The Conversation | 10.24.2024

A little-noticed change to South Africa’s national health research guidelines, published in May of this year, has put the country on an ethical precipice. The newly added language appears to position the country as the first to explicitly permit...

Policies

What Do You Risk With At-Home DNA Test Kits?

By Ashleigh Wyss [cites CGS' Katie Hasson], Listnr | 10.09.2024

Discovering your genetic history can be as simple as spitting into a test tube, but what happens when your data...

Society
Three palm trees by the ocean in Southern California

Will California's $3 billion in stem cell spending pay off? First royalty check arrives

By David Jensen, The Sacramento Bee [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 03.01.2018

Back in 2004, when California's stem cell agency was little more than an idea in the minds of researchers, its...

Stem Cells
Male and Female symbol

You Can Control Your Baby's Sex — If You Believe In Babydust

By Rebecca Gale, Refinery29 [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 02.16.2018
It was 2011 and Kathryn Taylor was ready to get pregnant — with a boy. “I wanted a boy first...
Bioethics
An undifferentiated cell being differentiated into different cells. A switch is used to symbolize the changes made that allow the cell to differentiate differently.

'Less Than a Drop in the Bucket' -- Dueling Perspectives on California's First Stem Cell Royalty Check

By David Jensen, California Stem Cell Report [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 02.14.2018

California is counting its first royalties from a 13-year-old effort to develop stem cell cures and has declared that it...

Policies
Illustration of cells

The Inconvenient History of IVF

By Pete Shanks, Medium | 02.02.2018

Let’s Not Distort Debates about Human Cloning and Heritable Gene Editing

Cloning is back in the headlines. Researchers managed to...

Assisted Reproduction
A cracked light bulb is tipped on its side,a weak current is visible causing a glow. The background has an eerie mix of black and white colors and shadow.

Biopower in the Era of Biotech

By Jim Kozubek, Los Angeles Review of Books [cites CGS] | 09.07.2017

TWO TRENDS are on the rise, and one is about to make the other worse.

The first is epitomized in...

Biotech & Pharma
Microsopic image of fertilized egg.

A Closer Look at the Human Gene Editing Lab

By Karla Lant, Futurism [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 08.21.2017

As the scientific community takes in the work of the team who edited the DNA of the human embryos this

...
Assisted Reproduction
Microscopic image of sperm is injected directly into an egg

Exclusive: Inside The Lab Where Scientists Are Editing DNA In Human Embryos

By Rob Stein, NPR [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 08.18.2017

From the thirteenth floor of a glass tower at the Oregon Health & Science University, you get a panoramic view...

Assisted Reproduction
Bird's eye view of an adult with slender features working, using a laptop, and notebook and surrounded by coffee, plant and candle on a wooden desk.

How egg-freezing is keeping more women in the tech industry: The inside story

By Alison DeNisco, Tech Republic [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 08.15.2017

Women leave jobs at mid-career in tech at higher rates than those in other fields. It's possible that benefits like

...
Assisted Reproduction