Biomedical Regulations & Ethics
Ectogenesis: How artificial placentas could aid premature babies, upend entrenched abortion views
Survival rates are likely to be improved for infants born prematurely, and those requiring invasive treatments -- including surgery, cell ...
Viewpoint: Moving forward with human gene editing requires scientists to ‘educate, engage, and empower’ the public, policymakers
Researchers have long struggled to draw a line around ethical genome editing. While modifications to somatic cells only affect a single individual, ...
Viewpoint: ‘Denouncing’ HBO, Bill Maher for helping Dr. Jay Gordon spread vaccine misinformation
Dr. Jay Gordon (who usually likes to be called “Dr. Jay”) and I go back a long time, ever since I ...
Animal safety concerns prompt FDA to halt study testing Zolgensma gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy
The Food and Drug Administration has halted a clinical trial of Novartis’ Zolgensma gene therapy due to a safety concern ...
China’s new seaweed-based Alzheimer’s therapy raises hopes—and questions about safety, effectiveness
Chinese regulators have granted conditional approval to an Alzheimer’s drug that is derived from seaweed, potentially shaking up the field ...
Infographic: No country is fully prepared for a pandemic, report says
After an Ebola epidemic devastated West Africa in 2014, many countries took steps to boost their preparedness. But even as the risk ...
Why the genetic database GEDmatch represents a ‘security risk’ for the US
A private DNA ancestry database that’s been used by police to catch criminals is a security risk from which a ...
Is experimental Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab being resurrected based on ‘bad’ data?
I worked on and around aducanumab, an experimental treatment for Alzheimer’s, for years during my time at Biogen. I thought ...
Humans originated in Botswana? New research challenged for using ‘weak and inconclusive genetic analysis’
A new paper claiming that modern humans originated in northern Botswana some 200,000 years ago is being criticized by experts, ...
Viewpoint: Global moratorium on human gene editing ‘inadvisable’ for 3 reasons, including potential research delays
Heritable genome editing (HGE) of the human germline has potential as a niche assisted reproductive technology. If it can be ...
Biohacker Josiah Zayner explains how to be ethical without being ‘responsible’
Josiah Zayner is a biophysicist who made headlines in 2017 when he tried to edit his genome live onstage at a ...
Should we be more careful with our genetic data? ‘People don’t understand what can actually be done with this information’
People in the United States view certain personal information, such as their social security number and the content of their ...
Emerging field of ‘social genomics’ comes with ethical, societal risks: ‘Who’s going to benefit?’
By looking at the genomes of people living in former coal-mining areas, [geneticist Abdel Abdellaoui] has found genetic signatures associated ...
Should we use gene editing on human newborns? Exploring scientific arguments for, and against, what may be inevitable
[L]et’s take a closer look at the headline question in own words of scientists. Below are exact quotes from documents, ...
Why defining ‘death’ is so much harder than it seems
Pronouncing a patient dead in a hospital seems relatively simple: palpate for lack of pulse, determine that the patient's neurological ...
Controversial DNA tests promise to match patients with correct psychiatric drugs. And now some insurers are paying for them
As a teenager, Katie Gruman was prescribed one mental health drug after another. None seemed to help her manage symptoms ...
Commercialization without consent: Sanger Institute accused of violating agreements with African scientists
The Wellcome Sanger Institute in the UK had planned to commercialize a genetics array based on African DNA samples, whistleblowers ...
‘Unnatural Selection’: Netflix series tackles tough CRISPR issues, including biohacking and editing children’s DNA
Is it ethical to edit your child’s DNA — or your own? Does the answer depend on whether you’re perfectly ...
‘Gross and dangerous”: Genetic test for same-sex attraction condemned by scientists
In August, a group of researchers published the results of a massive genome-wide association study on homosexual behavior. The take-home message ...
‘A new kind of super-warrior’: US military pursuing mind controlled drones
Surgery is expensive, and surgery to create a new kind of super-warrior is ethically complicated. A mind-reading device that requires ...
Trump Administration proposes DNA collection from immigrants crossing the border for database of asylum seekers
The Justice Department is proposing to begin collecting DNA samples from hundreds of thousands of immigrants crossing the border, creating ...
Controversial ‘3-parent baby’ technique not effective for women over 36, fertility doctors warn
An experimental and much-hyped reproductive procedure that mixes DNA from three people is not effective at boosting the chances of ...
African Americans and Latinos are underrepresented in Alzheimer’s research. Here are 4 ways to fix that
UsAgainstAlzheimer’s, the organization we work with, recently analyzed more than 300 peer-reviewed studies of non-drug interventions for Alzheimer’s and dementia. Just ...
15 things to know about fecal transplants – here’s the straight poop
Fecal transplants carry a certain ick factor for many people. But there is a legitimate medical use for them -- ...
Top 10 biotech innovations of all time, including CRISPR, IVF babies
Human Genome Project As biology’s first “big science” collaboration, the international Human Genome Project mapped and sequenced the entire human ...
How a ‘dubious’ 50-year-old study fuels marijuana use by pregnant women—against the advice of health experts
Social media users extol — and health experts decry — a study from Jamaica suggesting cannabis use poses no harm ...
Max Planck Society backs CRISPR crops, rejects human germline editing
As an organization of basic research, the Max Planck Society bears a special responsibility for the use of new scientific ...
Eugenics offers a warning about the perils of scientists chasing a brighter future at the ‘cost of innocent individual lives’
We tend to associate eugenics with Nazi Germany and the Holocaust, but it was in fact developed in London. Its ...
