Featured in Weekly Newsletter
BRCA mutations can be deadly or harmless. Now CRISPR can tell the difference
CRISPR has many emerging applications, one of which is identifying dangerous breast cancer mutations ...
13 nations say it’s time to end ‘political posturing’ and embrace crop gene editing
Agricultural scientists have been excited about gene editing since it debuted several years ago. The technology dramatically cuts the time ...
Blasting rodents with cell phone radiation increased cancer risk. Here’s why that means nothing for humans
Last week the National Toxicology Program (NTP) issued an update on the results of the largest animal experiment to assess ...
Genetics and Type 2 diabetes: Why weight loss alone may not be enough for some people
People who develop Type 2 diabetes fall into one of two categories — those whose blood sugar can be controlled ...
Absolut failure: Kansas farm family takes stand against fear-based non-GMO vodka marketing
I don’t throw the word hero around very often, but in this case the cape fits. Out on the vast ...
Viewpoint: Why a jury verdict against Monsanto doesn’t change anything regarding the safety of Roundup herbicide
The common weed killer Roundup (glyphosate) is back in the news after a US court ruled it contributed to a man’s terminal cancer (non-Hodgkin ...
Why you need to know about RNA therapy and its potential to revolutionize disease treatment
After a decade of painstaking progress, the underdog is on the brink of treating a broad range of diseases ...
Quick FDA approval of GMO human insulin 36 years ago contrasts with today’s biotechnology regulatory sclerosis
This week marked the 36th anniversary of one of biotechnology’s most significant milestones—the approval by the FDA of human insulin ...
Who benefits most from FDA’s ‘accelerated’ drug approvals? Patients or drugmakers?
Increasing reliance on this and other means of moving drugs quickly to market have many critics worried, given that drugmakers ...
Ugandan researchers hit the road to battle anti-GMO propaganda
As Uganda continues to grapple with its biotech future, scientists have launched an initiative to help local farmers better understand ...
Climate change and rice: How some of the world’s poorest nations may suffer
Much of the world relies on rice. What happens when climate change threatens rice nutrition? ...
Not-so-mad scientists and why they’re making human body parts
Halloween brings a cornucopia of candy body parts, so it’s a good time to review recent advances in organoid technology ...
Viewpoint: Why we have to fight for what biotechnology can offer us
“Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.” That’s how fictional star ship captain Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek orders his tea, 300 years ...
How Frankenstein and 200 years of horror stories have haunted the biotechnology revolution
It was a dark and stormy night in 1818, when something sinister was loosed upon the world. Okay, so it ...
Countering the impact of climate change through new breeding techniques
It is imperative that we breed new varieties of plants to make agriculture more sustainable, given increasing food demand and ...
Not so different after all: Reptile and human brains have a lot in common
Reports of human and reptile brain differences seem greatly exaggerated, according to recent neuroscience ...
With GMO soybean market booming, is there a future for conventional varieties?
Almost all the world's soybean grown today is GMO, which it is very difficult to find non-GMO soybeans. Begging the ...
Why ending muscle wasting matters for curing cancer
Deterioration of muscle is the cause of death in many diseases, like cancer, but no treatments address this lethal symptom ...
Jumping genes: How Barbara McClintock won a Nobel Prize by crossbreeding corn
Through meticulous crossbreeding, she showed that DNA is far more complicated than scientists originally thought ...
‘Autonomous weapons’ based on artificial intelligence could change warfare—and why that’s worrisome
In a new book, an expert (and former U.S. Army Ranger) warns that the world is stumbling toward a scary ...
Selling yourself? These companies want to pay for your genetic information
Some companies want to rent your DNA - should you let them? ...
Viewpoint: Chemophobia epidemic—Fanning fears about trace chemicals obscures real risks and ‘damages public health’
When is a chemical dangerous? This is not a question we consciously ask ourselves much, but in fact, we interrogate ...
Using gene editing to control forest fires? It could be a reality if anti-biotechnology activists don’t block it
The American west has experienced devastating wildfires in recent years; while the number of fires has decreased a little over ...
Why we may need a ‘Noah’s Ark’ of microbes to protect our health in the future
Preserving human microbiomes today, especially the more diverse ones from traditional peoples in developing nations, may provide treatments for diseases ...
Failure of race-based medicine? We aren’t accounting for the unique genetics of biracial and multiracial populations
For several decades in modern medicine history, human race has been used as a constant variable to predict and/or determine ...
Boosting crop yields by using genetic engineering to help plants discard natural toxins
Can you imagine the entire population of the United States, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, the United Kingdom and France going hungry? ...
Cancer and genetics: Why smoking threatens more than just your lungs
Cigarettes smoking causes lung, throat and larynx cancers–which makes sense because those tissues come directly into contact with smoke and ...
