Human Features
The GLP tackles innovations in human genetics and biotechnology. We highlight the work of our own writers, as well as that of contributors from around the Web. The GLP does not take a position on genetics-related issues; any opinions expressed belong to the authors.
Categories include:
- CRISPR and gene editing
- Gene therapy
- Stem cell research
- Genetic diseases
- Synthetic biology
- Epigenetics
- Biodrugs (pharmacogenetics)
- Personal genomics
- Ancestry and evolution
- Ethics and regulations
How did Taiwan go from fortress impregnable to Asia’s COVID hotspot?
In September 2020, I arrived in Taiwan on a flight from New York. I had read much about the border ...
Bereitschaftspotential effect: Brain-to-computer interfaces are all the rage, but legal issues about how and why we act complicate risks
As I’ve written recently, a spate of devices enabling people with quadriplegia to move their extremities have been approved by ...
Viewpoint: Eric Lander is the first geneticist to direct US science policy. Here’s how he can harness the biotechnology revolution
Eric Lander—geneticist, mathematician, president and founding director of the Broad Institute— took the helm on June 2 as director of the Office of Science and ...
Pregnant women’s brains show troubling signs of stress – but feeling strong social support can break those patterns
Even before the pandemic, there was plenty for expectant mothers to worry about. Pregnant women must withstand a barrage of ...
What our embattled world looks like through the ‘eyes’ of SARS-CoV-2
I’m tired of writing about COVID from a geneticist’s point of view, so I thought I’d let a virus speak ...
Rafting events: How did animals disperse around the world to seed evolution? Here is one possible scenario
Humans evolved in Africa, along with chimpanzees, gorillas and monkeys. But primates themselves appear to have evolved elsewhere – likely ...
Viewpoint: What’s the future of individualized medicine when you factor in ‘racial’ and genetic differences?
COVID-19 has put race-based health disparities on full display, but such inequities extend far deeper than the current pandemic. An ...
GLP Podcast: Cell-based breast milk; Joe Mercola’s awful COVID book; More mRNA drugs coming soon?
Cell-based breast milk might offer mothers and babies a better alternative to expensive formula in the coming years. Alternative health ...
Sperm injections (ICSI) are all the rage at IVF clinics. Should couples trying to conceive consider them?
An expensive IVF technique, routinely offered in fertility clinics around the world, offers no extra benefits to standard IVF in ...
By 2030, nearly half of Americans will be classified as obese: From gene manipulation to lifestyle changes, here are rays of hope
Now that COVID-19 is winding down, perhaps it’s time to go back to trying to do something about our country’s ...
GLP podcast: Mexico’s activist-inspired glyphosate ban; Anti-GMO Twitter bots on the loose; Malaria vaccine coming soon?
Mexico seems determined to ban the weedkiller glyphosate and biotech crops, drawing intense opposition from the country's farmers. Twitter bots ...
Viewpoint: Dr. Joseph Mercola’s war on mainstream medicine — ‘His take on the pandemic is a lucrative conspiratorial dream’
Dr. Joe Mercola, an osteopathic physician who has made an impressive fortune selling supplements through his online store, has a ...
Maybe both sides are right: If SARS-CoV-2 was leaked from a Wuhan lab, it doesn’t mean the virus was necessarily engineered
The “lab leak” hypothesis about the origin of Covid-19 has been getting a lot of attention lately, and deservedly so ...
6 eyewitnesses identified a Texas man as a murderer. It took forensic DNA to prove they were wrong — sparking conversation on how to prevent ‘lineup bias’
On the strength of six eyewitnesses’ lineup identifications, Lydell Grant was sentenced to life in prison in 2012 for the murder ...
GLP Podcast: Hollywood’s vaccine-autism nonsense; COVID lab-leak story won’t die; Africa ignores Greenpeace on pesticides
Many Hollywood celebrities have endorsed the bogus link between vaccines to autism. Looking back, it appears their influence has been ...
Viewpoint: Zantac BS—Sanofi’s marketing sleight-of-hand in ‘reformulating’ its Zantac acid-reducer deceives consumers
Back in 2019, I wrote about some of the tricks that drug companies use to hang onto brand name sales ...
Anti-biotechnology critics say the Genetic Literacy Project is a Monsanto-funded ‘corporate front’. It’s not true. Here is the documentation — and a review of the critics behind the disinformation
Activist groups opposed to agricultural biotechnology (GMOs and gene edited crops and animals) repeatedly claim that the Genetic Literacy Project ...
X-ray vision to peer into the rubble of collapsed buildings or check for booby traps? The science of the future is now
Within seconds after reaching a city, earthquakes can cause immense destruction: Houses crumble, high-rises turn to rubble, people and animals ...
Viewpoint: ‘Magic promised by genetically pruning ‘defective’ embryos has fairy-dusted the eyes of even the most intelligent’ — Maybe it’s time to hit the pause button
Advances in genetics have been revolutionized in the last few years. First came CRISPR, which can edit single genes, possibly ...
Organ transplantation: Challenging ethical questions on race, economics, and the meaning of life
At an international conference on kidney transplantation in 1963, a disagreement broke out about exactly when a patient should be considered ...
Which provides better long-term protection against coronavirus reinfection: An actual infection or a vaccine?
Two recent studies have confirmed that people previously infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can be reinfected with ...
Viewpoint: Why the Wuhan lab escape theory explaining the origin of the global pandemic isn’t going away anytime soon
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted lives the world over for more than a year. Its death toll will soon reach ...
Viewpoint: Suspending COVID vaccine patents will not solve the supply problem or hasten the end of the pandemic
In a recent Washington Post column, Fareed Zakaria wrote: The United States is entering a post-pandemic era. This is happening primarily ...
Podcast: Bad science in the headlines—Epidemiologist Geoffrey Kabat explains how to spot flawed research on Google News
A just-published study found that consuming two or more sugar-sweetened beverages in a day is linked to a doubling of ...
Genomic Cold War? More nations joining the US in using biotechnology to enhance military capabilities
The UK government recently announced an £800 million, taxpayer-funded Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria). The brainchild of the British ...
Incurable Huntington’s disease? microRNA offers hope in the wake of failed clinical trials
A recent DNA Science post considered the ebb and flow of treatment possibilities for Alzheimer’s disease. This week, it’s Huntington’s disease. Like ...
Viewpoint: ‘Make America Safe Again’—Conservative calls for fellow rightists to get vaccinated
As a conservative, I praised most of President Trump’s efforts to “Make America great again,” including the financial incentive to ...
