Biomedical Regulations & Ethics
Merging soldiers and machines: Inside the quest to weaponize the brain
What lies beyond bionics? [DARPA director Justin] Sanchez described his work as trying to “understand the neural code,” which would ...
‘Hugely influential’ papers on cardiac stem cells declared ‘fraudulent’ by Harvard
An internal investigation by Harvard Medical School has determined that 31 scientific publications from the laboratory of a high-profile cardiologist ...
Synthetic biology mosquitoes: Pioneering solution emerges to counter fears over using ‘gene drives’ to control Zika
In fall 2015, scientists planned to release genetically engineered mosquitoes throughout the Florida Keys. These lab-bread insects are capable of ...
DNA forensic analysis soon will be ‘vastly more powerful’—good for crime fighting, problematic for privacy
Genetic sleuthing techniques that led to the arrest of a suspect in the infamous Golden State Killer case this year ...
Are we ready for the artificial womb?
In the coming years, the obstacles to ectogenesis --development outside of a mother from fertilization to full-term infancy-- will be ...
What’s the difference between choosing healthy embryos and picking a baby’s eye color?
Blair and James are trying to start a family. Like many parents, they hope their future offspring will be healthy ...
Pentagon DARPA program targeting crop losses could turn insects into ‘easily weaponized’ biological army, critics claim
The Pentagon is studying whether insects can be enlisted to combat crop loss during agricultural emergencies. The bugs would carry ...
Canada’s shady stem cell clinics
Doctors selling dubious stem cell treatments isn’t just a problem in the U.S., suggests a new study published in Regenerative Medicine. Clinics ...
Robots helping Chinese parents raise kids. Is that a good thing?
At kindergarten, three-year-old Seven Kong has his schoolmates to play with, but at home his best friend is a kidney-shaped, ...
Viewpoint: New book ‘Blueprint’ revisits the dangerous theory of genetic determinism
It’s never a good time for another bout of genetic determinism, but it’s hard to imagine a worse one than ...
Mosquito massacre: Can we safely tackle malaria with a CRISPR gene drive?
CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing quickly decimated two caged populations of malaria-bearing mosquitoes (Anopheles gambiae) in a recent study, introducing a new ...
Hope and hype: What ketamine can and can’t do for depression
Starting with just one office 19 months ago, [Kalypso Wellness Center] has expanded rapidly to meet surging patient demand for ...
Patenting the genes of marine life and what it means for medicine
[Marine animal] DNA is included among thousands of patents owned by BASF, which calls itself “the largest chemical producer in the ...
Should we strive to engineer better humans?
While proposals like cognitive or moral enhancements to help create a less doomsday-prone population are quite speculative (and on occasion, ...
How crowdfunding is being used for ‘dubiuous, possibly dangerous’ alternative cancer treatments
It’s become a heartbreakingly common sight on the internet: People using crowdfunding sites to raise money for their expensive health ...
Viewpoint: Federal marijuana regulations defy ‘common sense’, hindering autism and epilepsy research
A few years ago, I began to see children in my practice who seemingly responded to marijuana-derived extracts. And as ...
Do children have a right to know about a parent’s serious hereditary disease?
Genetic diagnosis is getting ever more sophisticated. But as doctors uncover diseases that are hereditary, who needs to know? Shaun ...
‘Voluntary euthanasia’: Are we ready to harvest organs while donors are still alive?
In the dystopian society of Nobel prizewinner Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, cloned people are raised to provide organs for ...
Did California’s $3 billion stem cell bet pay off?
It was an extraordinary political proposal: Approve a $3 billion bond measure to fund the cutting-edge science of stem cell ...
Viewpoint: Study participants should have the right to their own results
Study participants nearly always want their own results. But few get them. … The ethical concern with giving an individual ...
Olympic genes? China will use genetic tests to help choose its athletes
Chinese athletes aiming to represent their country in the 2022 Winter Olympics will undergo genetic testing as part of the ...
Could a fake surgery really make you feel better?
Did you know placebo surgery occur? Some believe they are the next realm of understanding more about the effect of ...
Microdosing claims put to the test: Researchers looking at psilocybin mushrooms for depression
Microdosing involves taking roughly one-tenth the “trip” dose of a psychedelic drug, an amount too little to trigger hallucinations but ...
When is it time for a scientist to call out peers over questionable research?
Sooner or later, every researcher is likely to wonder: What’s the best way to address faulty or misleading information in ...
Quest to fight skin cancer with machine learning may have a diversity problem
As the rates of melanoma for all Americans continue a 30-year climb, dermatologists have begun exploring new technologies to try ...
Seeking a new path for FDA regulation of revolutionary medical treatments
Researchers are developing therapies that could permanently alter a patient’s genes... . The early results are promising. Patients would live ...
Synthetic marijuana has a real problem: Nobody knows what’s in it
[Recently], more than 70 people overdosed on the synthetic marijuana known as K2 during a single 24 hour period in New Haven, ...
Viewpoint: Drug developers are abandoning current Alzheimer’s patients. Why is no one complaining?
Although the latest analysis of experimental Alzheimer’s drugs finds that literally zero are being tested in late-stage clinical trials to treat moderate ...
