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

The New Artificial Intelligentsia

By Ruha Benjamin, Los Angeles Review of Books | 10.18.2024

IN THE FALL OF 2016, I gave a talk at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton titled “Are Robots...

A "Post-Human" Future?

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
A gvel and patent law sign

Major CRISPR patent decision won’t end tangled dispute

By Heidi Ledford, Nature | 03.09.2022

Patent Law by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Alpha Stock Images

A long-running dispute between two groups that...

Policies
Woman receiving an ultrasound exam

Bias and Inaccuracy in Marketing Noninvasive Prenatal Tests

By Editors, The Hastings Center | 03.08.2022

Photo by Scott via wikimedia

Bias and inaccuracy are pervasive in the marketing of noninvasive prenatal tests (NIPTs), concludes an...

Other Countries
cattle

Gene-edited beef cattle get regulatory clearance in US

By Candice Choi, Associated Press | 03.07.2022

Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash

U.S. regulators on Monday cleared the way for the sale of beef from gene-edited...

Policies
Roll of hundred dollar bills

‘It’s a real-life Hunger Games’: a lifesaving drug costs $2m, but not every child can get it

By Hannah Devlin, The Guardian | 03.05.2022

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Elizabeth Wraige remembers the first time she delivered the diagnosis. “Parents feel as if...

U.S. Federal
golden rice

Genetically Engineered Golden Rice: Real Hope or Misplaced Hype?

By Melissa Waddell, Living Non-GMO | 03.03.2022

The biotech industry loves to talk about precision. 

For example, advocates for genetic engineering and genetic modification have adopted the...

Synthetic Biology
a police officer types on a computer keyboard

SFPD says use of rape victim's DNA in unrelated criminal investigation 'should not have happened'

By J. R. Stone, ABC News | 03.03.2022

Wednesday night the San Francisco Police Chief responded to some tough questions from police commissioners about the use of DNA...

Policies
A doctor explaining an Xray to a patient

Rediscovering a language of healing that doesn’t require ‘cure’

By Lee D. Cooper, STAT News | 03.02.2022

"Doctor Patient and Xray" by andyde is marked with CC BY-NC 2.0.

I am a biotech investor and...

Human Genetic Modification
An image of Cas9

First gene-editing treatment injected into the blood reduces toxic protein for up to 1 year

By Jocelyn Kaiser, Science | 03.01.2022

Cas9 from CRISPR from NIH, CC BY-NC 2.0

The first team to disable a disease gene directly in a...

Human Genetic Modification