Biomedical Regulations & Ethics
Battling malaria: Bill Gates backs gene editing of mosquitoes, acknowledges ethical concerns
Gene-editing technologies that alter mosquitoes’ DNA could prove critical in the fight against malaria, Bill Gates said on [April 18], ...
Gene therapy and rare diseases: ‘Is curing patients a sustainable business model?’
An analyst at Goldman Sachs asked a troubling question...about gene therapy. “Is curing patients a sustainable business model?” In social media, reactions ...
Transhumanist super athletes: CRISPR and ‘gene doping’ therapy poised to roil sports
[In the 1990s], gene therapy -- defined as the technique of using and manipulating genes in order to treat or ...
Viewpoint: Regulating dangerous biological weapons research ‘not an impossible task’
With current advances in biology, we can’t afford to avoid the topic any longer. It is high time the international ...
Transhumanism could push human evolution into hyperdrive. Should we embrace it?
Some people believe that we can enhance human life through embracing biotechnology and genetic engineering, but should we? ...
Landmark cancer tumor drug Keytruda hampered by glitches
A landmark cancer drug approved last year seemed to herald a long-anticipated change in the treatment of some tumours: with ...
Viewpoint: We need to know if CRISPR works in monkeys and possible off-target effects before we start human trials
Sometime this year, people in the US and Europe will start getting treated for diseases using the gene-editing tool CRISPR, but ...
23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki: No need for experts to interpret direct-to-consumer breast and ovarian cancer tests
My company, 23andMe, recently received FDA authorization for the first ever direct-to-consumer genetic test for an inherited risk for cancer. Specifically, it tests for ...
Viewpoint: Peggy Sarlin’s ‘Awakening from Alzheimer’s’ offers ‘false claims, false hope’
[S]cientists are diligently working to understand [Alzheimer’s] disease and find an effective treatment. Others apparently think they needn’t bother. A ...
Analyzing Kevin MacDonald’s ‘Culture of Critique’ and the alt-right’s embrace of anti-Jewish ideology
The biblical commentator Rashi observes that in order for a falsehood to be successful, it has to contain at least ...
Japan considers allowing human organs to be grown inside animals
A ban on creating human organs inside the bodies of animals will likely be lifted as early as this autumn, ...
Estonia becomes first nation to provide state-sponsored DNA testing
Estonia, a former Soviet territory nestled in the Baltic region between Latvia and Russia, has become the first nation to ...
MIT Media Lab halts relationship with startup Nectome over storing their brains in fatal ‘brain uploads’
The MIT Media Lab will sever ties with a brain-embalming company that promoted euthanasia to people hoping for digital immortality ...
Precision education: DNA test for intelligence could be on the horizon
Ready for a world in which a $50 DNA test can predict your odds of earning a PhD or forecast ...
Money magnets: Wall Street enamored by promise of human gene editing, gene therapies
Venture capitalists and investors are pouring money into the genomics sector, seeking to capitalize on breakthroughs in CRISPR gene editing ...
Viewpoint: Time to reassess Nazi Hans Asperger’s role in study of autism
I have spent the past seven years researching the Nazi past of Dr. Hans Asperger. Asperger is credited with shaping ...
Can CRISPR be used safely in humans? ‘It’s still an open question’
Biotech has been betting big on Crispr, the gene-editing technique that promises to snip away some of humanity’s worst diseases. But last ...
Regulating fast-moving consumer genetic testing industry is no small challenge
Submitting a vial of spit to a genetic testing company is easy. Understanding the implications — and regulating the burgeoning ...
Viewpoint: 10 things everyone should know about autism
I offer 10 things I wish everyone knew about autism. I'm a developmental and behavioral pediatrician specializing in autism spectrum ...
Caught stealing GMO seeds, Chinese scientist gets 10 years in US prison
A Chinese scientist in Kansas was sentenced on Wednesday [April 4] to more than 10 years in a federal prison ...
No chemotherapy: Attacking cancer with immunotherapy ‘vaccine’
A recent Stanford cancer study that cured 97 percent of mice from tumors has now moved on to soliciting human ...
25 years of GMO crops: Economic, environmental and human health benefits
Since the first GMO crop was developed in 1994, genetically modified foods have provided countries around the world with economic, ...
We know the placebo effect is biological. Is it also genetic?
We know that the placebo effect is in part biological: expectations of receiving a palliative leads to brain changes. Are ...
Viewpoint: Ignoring genetics threatens to make racial discussions ‘more extreme and divisive’
[A controversial op-ed] by David Reich, a professor of genetics at Harvard, [...] carefully advanced the case that there are genetic ...
Infertility could be ended with emerging technologies, including CRISPR
Through an emerging technology called in vitro gametogenesis (or IVG), scientists are learning how to convert adult human cells—taken perhaps ...
Sri Lankan chemistry professor: Lift the glyphosate ban, which was based on pseudoscience
As a Professor of Chemistry and University President who in a small way pioneered environmental science and food technology in the 1970s ...
‘Star cluster’ genetic analysis illuminates history’s social inequalities
In humans, the profound biological differences that exist between the sexes mean that a single male is physically capable of ...
Synthetic biology ‘control circuits’ could regulate cells like a thermostat
Synthetic biology offers a vision for the future of medicine, where cells could be re-engineered to fight diseases such as ...
