Biomedical Regulations & Ethics
Reconsidering LSD and other psychedelic drugs for treating depression and anxiety
There is a movement underway to reconsider how LSD and other psychedelic drugs are regulated. If restrictions were loosened, these ...
A video game for ADHD? We’re still waiting to see what the FDA thinks
In mid-2018, the startup Akili Interactive Labs asked the Food and Drug Administration to let it do something that’s never ...
Viewpoint: Prohibiting treatment of transgender teens ignores reality of gender dysphoria
New study delves into the genetics of individuals with gender dysphoria ...
‘Simpler, cheaper’ alternative to IVF promised by controversial embryo research
Researchers have conducted a controversial study that involved paying dozens of young women at a hospital near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, ...
Artificial wombs could create seismic shift in the debate over abortion, reproductive rights
The ability to develop a fetus outside the mother's body could be here within decades. That means society will face ...
Growing tiny brains for research: Should we ‘frantically panic’ that something might go awry?
As mini-brains become more advanced, some researchers are worried they'll develop consciousness ...
Gene therapy era: A look at current treatments and what’s next for cancers and genetic disorders
At least nine gene therapies have been approved for certain kinds of cancer, some viral infections and a few inherited ...
We have the power to wipe out mosquitoes and malaria—but is that a good idea?
Gene drives have yet to be tested outside the lab, and even the most developed project to date — the ...
Psychedelics have ‘extraordinarily potent’ anti-inflammatory power. Is there a place for them in mainstream medicine?
Research on psychedelics, which have been profoundly stigmatized, highly restricted, and tragically undeveloped for more than half a century, is ...
Viewpoint: Pricey gene therapies fuel debate over drug prices—and why there is no easy fix
By scrapping value added and sales taxes, we can cut down on drug pricing by up to 25% ...
Fetal tissue research restrictions disrupting studies into major diseases, including AIDS, Down syndrome, diabetes
A recent Trump administration decision to limit funding of research that uses fetal tissue is already disrupting research into major ...
Some patients in vegetative states have functioning minds. Keeping them alive may amount to ‘torture’
[Researchers] have convincingly demonstrated that a subset of individuals in persistent vegetative states have meaningfully functioning minds — even as ...
39 biotech experts’ open letter protests anti-GMO activist Vandana Shiva’s ‘anti-science’ talks at Stanford and UC Santa Cruz
An activist who compares GMOs to rape and fertilizers to war should not be given a platform ...
Collecting DNA samples from migrant detainees opens door to enhanced government surveillance
[T]he United States government will begin collecting DNA samples from thousands of people detained by immigration officials, including minors, and ...
CBD fraud? Fate of controversial CBD industry could be decided by lawsuits alleging misleading marketing
Since the Food and Drug Administration can’t figure out whether supplements that contain cannabidiol, the marijuana-adjacent oil known as CBD, are ...
Forecasting: 2020 could bring major advances in gene therapies and pig-to-human organ transplants
Here are two stories in biotech we’re keeping our eyes on. Although successes likely won’t come to fruition this year ...
Do genetics determine our political beliefs? Why twin studies may not be able to answer the question
In the late 1960s, researchers began to consider the interaction between genes and environment as a possible basis for all ...
Will 2020 see the debut of promising gene therapy for hemophilia A? It’s up to the FDA.
Hemophilia A gene therapy has been twenty years in the making ...
DNA to be collected from migrants in custody through Trump administration pilot program
The Trump administration will begin collecting DNA samples from some migrants in US Customs and Border Protection custody as part ...
Viewpoint: In 100 years, we’ll be honoring controversial CRISPR scientist He Jiankui
When I saw the news that He Jiankui and colleagues had been sentenced to three years in prison for the first human ...
‘Strange’ decade gave us CRISPR, gene therapy advances and a Neanderthal genome
[H]ere, we present some of the innovations, both conceptual and technological, that stood out throughout the past decade. … In ...
Would the US prosecute a rogue scientist like China’s He Jiankui who illegally gene edited an embryo?
13 months after He Jiankui announced that he had created the world’s first gene-edited babies, the Chinese scientist was sentenced to ...
Viewpoint: Price controls would stifle private sector innovation that gives us most of our new biomedical drugs
The false maxim that the government is primarily responsible for all innovation has been refuted through published literature in peer-reviewed ...
Viewpoint: We need ‘public buy-in’ before moving forward on human gene editing
In response to [China's controversial CRISPR babies], the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), the Chinese Academies of ...
Emergency approval sends new oral polio vaccine to front lines, bypassing clinical trials
To stem a growing polio crisis, health officials are accelerating the development of a new oral vaccine with plans for emergency ...
Controversial treatment for dwarfism meets clinical trial goals. Is FDA approval coming?
A treatment for the most common cause of dwarfism met its goal of increasing height in a pivotal study, the ...
Podcast: How precision, customized medicine is reshaping health care
For all the life-saving pharmaceuticals, surgeries and devices it provides, modern medicine is still rather imprecise. Chemotherapy drugs, for instance, ...
Modern love or eugenics? Genetics pioneer George Church’s dating app matches DNA to ‘wipe out’ inherited disease
George Church made a passing comment about a genetic dating app his lab was developing that he said could wipe ...
