Daily Human Digest
Every day, the staff of the Genetic Literacy Project scours the Web for stories on a range of human genetics issues, including gene editing, regulations and bioethics, gene therapy, epigenetics, personal genomics, evolution, ancestry and artificial intelligence. We publish excerpts of those stories and encourage our readers to visit the original publications for the complete stories.
Biotech executive facing end-stage cancer and the seduction of experimental drugs
For years, Michael Becker was one of the drug executives navigating swarms of cancer doctors at the annual meeting of ...
Patenting the genes of marine creatures and why it could matter for research
From the tiniest microbe to the biggest whale, the ocean is teeming with life. For corporations and researchers, that biodiversity is ...
Can we figure out how to get new drugs to the market faster?
Have you heard the oft-repeated “fact” that it takes at least 10 years from initial discovery for a new drug ...
Mapping the human brain requires a supercomputer like Aurora 21
In an effort to understand, on the finest level, what makes us human, [Bobby Kasthuri has] set out to create ...
Fears of ‘designer babies’ are surfacing again
"What we're seeing is a fast slide down a very slippery slope toward designer babies," warned Marcy Darnovsky. … What has alarmed ...
Why would hackers want your DNA?
DNA testing service MyHeritage [recently] revealed that hackers had breached 92 million of its accounts. Though the hackers only accessed encrypted ...
Robots could one day pass as humans. Should we let them?
[T]oday, ever-sophisticated robots are graduating from Disneyland-style animatronics into increasingly realistic, intelligent beings. Take the famous human replicas of Hiroshi Ishiguro. Or the ...
Right to try? Drug companies can’t be forced to let terminal patients try experimental treatments
Just after her second birthday, additional testing, including an MRI of her brain and spine followed by a genetic analysis, ...
CRISPR innovator Feng Zhang on treating human diseases: ‘We’re still a ways from that’
[Biologist Feng Zhang] has already made two discoveries tipped to win Nobel Prizes. The big one, the one that shot ...
Challenging the claim that a sex robot is the ‘perfect companion’
Sex doll maker Realbotix, in its marketing materials, bills [sex doll] Harmony as “the perfect companion.” But healthy companionship is too ...
Inside the Ukrainian clinic creating controversial ‘3 parent’ babies
In a clinic on a side street in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, doctors are doing something that, as far ...
Viewpoint: 3 reasons we should be concerned about artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence will in time bring extraordinary benefits to medical science, clean-energy provision, environmental issues, and many other areas. But precisely ...
Viewpoint: ‘Indigenous ways of knowing’ and the rejection of science
Science and the enlightenment are under assault from many directions, and in many incarnations, but they all tend to boil ...
Consumer genetic tests and loss of privacy: ‘It’s often the price you pay’
For a few hundred dollars and a spit sample, you too could take a journey of genetic self-discovery. You may ...
Viewpoint: Biohackers are interested in science education, not planning the ‘next global apocalypse’
Some people call me a biohacker. My colleagues like the term because it sounds cool, and journalists like it because ...
Video: How gene drives could use ‘selfish’ genes to eradicate malaria
The invention of the CRISPR gene editing tool has injected new life into a line of research called gene drive ...
Viewpoint: Public genome project would be good for Ireland’s health
Ireland needs to join the growing number of countries performing national public genome projects. Our European neighbours in Finland, Denmark, ...
Can a drug help us grow old without our bodies falling apart?
The idea behind [Biotech startup] Unity—preventing aging—sounds crazy, but it’s backed by dozens of scientific papers, the key two in Nature ...
Immunotherapy dilemma: When should untested therapies be prescribed for cancer patients?
Immunotherapy is a source of great hope in cancer care. It has rescued some patients from the brink, while giving others a ...
‘Uncertainty is over’ for breast cancer patients considering chemotherapy
For many breast cancer patients, one of the most difficult treatment decisions is whether or not to go through chemotherapy ...
Bringing a common language to Alzheimer’s research
The research into the underlying causes and treatment [of Alzheimer's] have been intensifying but have been a bit undisciplined; it ...
Three genes that changed the course of human brain evolution
Three nearly identical genes could help explain how 0.5 liters of gray matter in early human ancestors became the 1.4-liter ...
Synthego’s pre-edited genetic material makes CRISPR research faster and easier
Synthego, a provider of gene editing services for genomics research and experimentation, has launched a new suite of products that ...
Cancer patient’s ‘spontaneous remission’—not her diet—will be included in Harvard study
Over the past few weeks, multiple media outlets have written about Kathy Bero, a 54-year-old woman who claims her breast cancer 12 years ago ...
Genetically modified mosquitos could eliminate malaria, if we’re willing to take risk
[Kevin] Esvelt is a biologist at MIT and the first person to formulate a technology known as a CRISPR gene ...
‘I’m the golden guinea pig’: New immunotherapy ‘eliminated’ aggressive breast cancer
[S]cientists have reported a new approach that eliminated all evidence of advanced-stage breast cancer in a 49-year-old woman who had ...
Why dreams are so hard to remember and what you can do about it
In waking life, [quickly] forgetting recent experiences would surely land you in a doctor's office. With dreams, however, forgetting is ...
Studies warn that CRISPR gene edits could trigger cancer
Editing cells’ genomes with CRISPR-Cas9 might increase the risk that the altered cells, intended to treat disease, will trigger cancer, two studies ...
