January 22, 2026
(New York Times) – He Jiankui spent three years in prison after creating gene-edited babies. Now back at work, he sees a greater opening for researchers who push boundaries. For creating the world’s first genetically edited babies, He Jiankui has … Read More
January 13, 2026
(MIT Technology Review) – Genetic testing on embryos is more sophisticated and accessible than ever—and it’s now being sold as a way to let parents pick their future baby’s best traits. Many Americans agree that it’s acceptable to screen embryos … Read More
January 9, 2026
(Wired) – Aurora Therapeutics, cofounded by Nobel Prize–winning scientist Jennifer Doudna, plans to use gene editing and a new FDA regulatory pathway to commercialize treatments for rare diseases. Last February, a sick infant named KJ received a gene-editing treatment made … Read More
January 9, 2026
(MIT Technology Review) – Aurora Therapeutics’ first target is the rare inherited disease phenylketonuria, also known as PKU. It’s becoming clear that the impact of CRISPR isn’t as big as we all hoped. In fact, there’s a pall of discouragement … Read More
December 12, 2025
(MIT Technology Review) – The company behind that campaign, Nucleus Genomics, says it offers customers a way to select embryos for a range of traits, including height and IQ. It’s an extreme proposition, but it does seem to be growing in … Read More
December 8, 2025
(The Guardian) – British fertility clinics raise scientific and ethical objections over patients sending embryos’ genetic data abroad for analysis Couples undergoing IVF in the UK are exploiting an apparent legal loophole to rank their embryos based on genetic predictions … Read More
November 24, 2025
(Axios) – In vitro fertilization has exploded across America. The number of babies born through assisted reproductive technologies — most of them via IVF — jumped 45%from 2013 to 2022. A more recent part of the surge is elective IVF … Read More
November 11, 2025
(MedPage Today) – A review of the new film and a look at its public health relevance today The film does a commendable job laying out the history of what was a complicated and risky prosecution. The crimes were so … Read More
November 10, 2025
(WSJ) – Startups funded by some of the most powerful billionaires in Silicon Valley are pushing the boundaries of reproductive genetics, hoping to prevent diseases as well as improve the chances for a high IQ and other preferred traits For … Read More
October 31, 2025
(MIT Technology Review) – A West Coast biotech entrepreneur says he’s secured $30 million to form a public-benefit company to study how to safely create genetically edited babies, marking the largest known investment into the taboo technology. The new company, … Read More
October 17, 2025
(MIT Technology Review) – Genetics experts have been highlighting the potential deficiencies of this testing for years. A 2021 paper by members of the European Society of Human Genetics said, “No clinical research has been performed to assess its diagnostic … Read More
October 7, 2025
(The New Atlantis) – We’re worrying about the wrong arms race with China. A curious feature of the last few years of anxieties about AI has been how they favor some dystopian fears over others. Right now, because of ChatGPT’s … Read More
September 26, 2025
(Longreads) – As the last Holocaust survivors approach the end of their lives, an AI scholar grapples with technology that promises to freeze them in time. Last May, I found myself in the basement of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and … Read More
September 23, 2025
(New York Times) – A young Greenlandic woman living in Denmark will regain custody of the infant girl taken from her shortly after birth. The case has become the latest flashpoint between Denmark and Greenland. Where the authorities misstepped, according … Read More
August 26, 2025
(Unherd) – As the historian Nadya Williams has shown, Greece and Rome offer proof that the parental quest for quality control over offspring is anything but new. Indeed, the popular stories of the era vigorously affirmed such practices. From Thetis … Read More
August 25, 2025
(New York Times) – If cherishing the suffering can make a nation kind, then discarding the suffering makes it cruel. It can breed a sense of contempt — why should we care for this hopeless cause? — and when our … Read More
August 13, 2025
(Wall Street Journal) – Tech execs are paying tens of thousands to find brilliant dates or select high-IQ embryos. ‘They want to raise high-performing children.’ Tsvi Benson-Tilsen, a mathematician, spent seven years researching how to keep an advanced form of … Read More
August 11, 2025
(The Free Press) – I’ve spent hours talking to the ‘Chinese Frankenstein’ who says he’s opening a lab in Austin. His competition, in his quest to pioneer gene editing in the United States? It’s his ex. I’m speaking to him … Read More
August 7, 2025
(New York Times) – For as little as $2,500, you can choose your future baby. Should you? Would you use an algorithm to select your embryos? Enter Orchid, a company that promises parents the ability to protect their future children … Read More
August 6, 2025
(NPR) – China imprisoned the scientist, He Jiankui, for three years for violating medical regulations. Fast forward to today: Mainstream scientific organizations are encouraging very careful basic research to explore gene-editing and human reproduction. But they still warn any attempts … Read More
July 18, 2025
(MIT Technology Review) – A UK team announced the births of eight babies born with DNA from three people. But around the world, others have already been born. This week we heard that eight babies have been born in the … Read More
July 17, 2025
(Washington Post) – Investors say genetic prediction services for embryos, used by Elon Musk and others, are a trust fund for future children. Many scientists are skeptical. Siddiqui is a rising starin the realm of fertility start-ups backed by tech … Read More
July 16, 2025
(MIT Technology Review) – Eight babies have been born in the UK thanks to a technology that uses DNA from three people: the two biological parents plus a third person who supplies healthy mitochondrial DNA. The babies were born to … Read More
June 25, 2025
(Newsweek) – Genetic disease is believed to be linked to 41 percent of U.S. infants’ deaths, and more than 2 million children in the country have a genetic condition. U.S.-based Nucleus is offering people having IVF the chance to select … Read More
June 24, 2025
(Gizmodo) – In late May, several scientific organizations, including the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy (ISCT), banded together to call for a 10-year moratorium on using CRISPR and related technologies to pursue human heritable germline editing. The declaration … Read More
