Science Controversies
Pepsi’s dropped lawsuit over patented potato raises global questions about intellectual property
A dispute between small, local farmers in India and a corporate giant over a patent on the type of potatoes ...
Can AI take everything we’ve learned about medicine and become ‘a single doctor’?
The question isn’t if AI is coming to medicine. It’s how. At its best, machine learning can tap into the collective experience of ...
Japanese researchers gain approval for ‘basic research’ on gene-edited human embryos
A government research panel specializing in life ethics approved the modification of genes from fertilized human eggs for basic research ...
Tumor ‘black box’ could pinpoint the cause of each patient’s cancer, researchers say
The cause of cancer is written into the DNA of tumours, scientists have discovered, in a breakthrough which could finally ...
‘Countries have been invaded for far less’: Why the genetic arms race could start a war
Imagine you are the leader of a society that has chosen to opt out of the genetic arms race by ...
Alabama bill would require lab-grown protein to carry label declaring it’s not ‘real meat’
Would you eat a hamburger if it was created in a lab as opposed to being real meat from a ...
FDA hires staff to streamline biotech animal evaluation amid calls for USDA regulation take over
The FDA has expanded its capacity to handle scientific and risk-based evaluation of biotech animals, the agency’s acting commissioner said ...
Podcast: Former FDA scientist Henry Miller says misguided regulation keeps safe biotech products off the market
In 1982, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first "GMO" pharmaceutical drug in the world, a new ...
CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing unlikely to cause off-target mutations in plants, study shows
CRISPR-Cas9 enabled genome engineering has great potential for improving agriculture productivity, but the possibility of unintended off-target edits has evoked ...
Students in Ghana rally support for GMO crops
Some student associations in Ghana have waded into the ongoing debate over whether the country should commercialize genetically modified organisms ...
Senate budget chief Mike Enzi presses FDA, USDA to release details of lab-grown meat regulation
U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., sent a letter asking how the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ...
Fine-tuning CAR-T cancer therapy could eliminate serious side effects, study says
A novel approach to CAR-T cancer therapy promises to upend what has become a truism in medicine: that the treatment’s dramatic effect ...
‘Excessive’ regulations fuel unjustified consumer fear of CRISPR-edited crops, biologists warn
A Washington Post article, “The Future of Food,” discussed the methods we use to breed food crops but suffered from ...
Washington Post: CRISPR-edited crops require careful oversight and regulations to calm consumer food safety concerns
Thanks to a cutting-edge technology called gene editing, scientists can now turn plant genes “on” and “off” almost as easily ...
Danish Council of Ethics urges EU to revamp GMO rules—’very new stance’ for Denmark
The Danish Council of Ethics recommends that legislation regarding the approval of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) be changed to help ...
‘Encyclopedia’ of cancer mutations could pinpoint new carcinogens
Previously, scientists have had only a limited number of tools for working out the cause of an individual’s tumor. As ...
Costly CAR T-cell therapy gets boost with Medicare proposal to increase reimbursements
Medicare officials on [April 23] proposed increasing reimbursements for a groundbreaking but costly cancer therapy used for patients whose blood ...
‘Biotech fantasy’? This startup wants to kill cancer by targeting RNA with new generation of pills
Arrakis Therapeutics is named for the desert planet in the legendary “Dune” series of science-fiction novels. It’s an apt name because ...
European companies, farm groups urge EU to revamp regulations that effectively ban CRISPR gene edited foods
Dear Madam, dear Sir, We, the undersigned European organizations, are writing to reiterate our concern about the European Court of ...
Danish researchers take on flawed assumptions behind Europe’s strict GMO regulations
The EU's policy on GMO is extremely strict and prevents new GMO crops from being authorized. The policy is based ...
Taking cancers apart ‘piece-by-piece’ in search for vulnerabilities that could be attacked with precision medicine
Scientists have taken cancer apart piece-by-piece to reveal its weaknesses, and come up with new ideas for treatment. A team ...
Australia adopts relaxed CRISPR gene-editing rules, ‘middle ground’ between US, EU extremes
The Australian government will not regulate the use of gene-editing techniques in plants, animals and human cell lines that do ...
‘Evolution in action’: How did this common gut bacteria turn lethal?
For three decades, the deadly bacteria sat in cold storage. Normally, Enterococcus faecalis lives harmlessly in the human gut. One particular strain, ...
Viewpoint: Our desperate need for new antibiotics won’t be met without government incentives
As the number of infections resistant to antimicrobial drugs continues to rise around the world, and with it their huge ...
With its biotech scientists forced overseas, New Zealand should rethink strict GMO rules, official says
New Zealand has a proud history of innovators and pioneering entrepreneurs who have turned ideas into world-beating businesses. It is ...
Stanford investigation clears faculty members that knew about CRISPR baby scandal
A Stanford investigation has cleared three prominent faculty members of helping with a controversial gene-editing experiment led by disgraced Chinese ...
Geneticist Alison Van Eenennaam: The biotech advocate anti-GMO groups ‘love to hate’
Facing a tide of anti-GMO activism, [UC Davis animal geneticist Alison] Van Eenennaam has taken it upon herself to advocate ...
