February 28, 2025
(Wall Street Journal) – Half of all pancreatic cancer patients live less than a year after diagnosis. But researchers say there is potential for change. Researchers estimate by 2030 that deaths will overtake those for colorectal cancer, as other cancers … Read More
February 28, 2025
(Knowable Magazine) – Can genetically modified animals help ease the shortage of organs? After years of research into xenotransplantation, the field is at a turning point — yet risks and ethical issues remain. Over the past few years, a handful … Read More
February 21, 2025
(BBC) – An experimental trial of gene therapy has helped four toddlers – born with one of the most severe forms of childhood blindness – gain “life-changing improvements” to their sight, according to doctors at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. … Read More
February 20, 2025
(Nature) – The child, who is now almost three years old, shows no signs of the often fatal motor neuron disease. A two-and-a-half-year-old girl shows no signs of a rare genetic disorder, after becoming the first person to be treated … Read More
February 19, 2025
(ABC News) – Why did humans start speaking? Scientists suggest genetics played a big role – and they say the evolution of this singular ability was key to our survival. A new study links a particular gene to the ancient origins of spoken language, … Read More
February 19, 2025
(Bloomberg via MSN) – Environmental and lifestyle factors play a far greater role than genetics in determining the likelihood of dying young, according to the largest study yet to untangle the contributions of nature and nurture to healthy aging. A … Read More
February 17, 2025
(Nature) – CAR-T-cell therapy treated a girl with a rare childhood cancer, raising hopes for future recipients of the approach. The girl was four years old when she arrived at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston to receive a highly experimental … Read More
February 17, 2025
(Daily Mail) – A few years ago, Britain’s first commercial surrogate mother, Kim Cotton, joined one of those ancestry DNA sites. It’s not a step you’d take if you wanted to keep the past firmly in the past, and yet, she says, … Read More
February 10, 2025
(Associated Press) – A New Hampshire man fought for the chance at a pig kidney transplant, spending months getting into good enough shape to be part of a small pilot study of a highly experimental treatment. His effort paid off: … Read More
February 7, 2025
(New York Times) – Surgeons in Boston successfully transplanted the kidney of a genetically modified pig into a 66-year-old man with kidney failure last month, Massachusetts General Hospital announced on Friday. It was the fourth pig kidney transplant in the … Read More
February 7, 2025
(BBC) – Two couples have told the BBC they went through with abortions after an NHS trust mistakenly told them their unborn babies had serious genetic conditions. They say errors by doctors at the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust led … Read More
February 7, 2025
(NBC News) – A startup called LinusBio says its test can help doctors rule out autism spectrum disorder in children 1 to 36 months old. LinusBio, a New Jersey-based startup, on Thursday launched the test, called Clearstrand-ASD, which it says … Read More
February 6, 2025
(STAT News) – How hype, scientific setbacks, and growing investor demands humbled the gene editing industry A strange thing happened weeks before the Food and Drug Administration approved the first treatment made with CRISPR gene editing, an all-but cure for … Read More
February 5, 2025
(Quanta) – “It’s really hard for humans to understand biological sequence,” said the computer scientist Brian Hie, who heads the Laboratory of Evolutionary Design at Stanford University, based at the nonprofit Arc Institute. This was the impetus behind his new … Read More
February 3, 2025
(New York Times) – The research offers hope to tens of thousands of patients with kidney failure who are on a long waiting list for an organ transplant. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given the green light to … Read More
January 31, 2025
(BBC) – A gene-editing therapy for sickle cell disease, with a price tag of £1.65m, is to be offered to patients on the NHS in England. About 50 people a year with the inherited blood disorder are likely to receive … Read More
January 31, 2025
European Journal of Human Genetics (vol. 33, no. 1, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
January 30, 2025
(NPR) – Towana Looney is waiting to check in with her doctors at NYU Health Langone when it registers that she’s passing a major milestone in her recovery from a kidney transplant. In late November she became the first person … Read More
January 28, 2025
(The New Atlantis) – From cradle to grave, surrogacy to smartphones to gender surgery to euthanasia, Americans are using technology to shortcut human nature — and shortchange ourselves. Here is a new agenda for turning technology away from hacking humans … Read More
January 27, 2025
(Associated Press) – An Alabama woman passed a major milestone Saturday to become the longest living recipient of a pig organ transplant – healthy and full of energy with her new kidney for 61 days and counting. “I’m superwoman,” Towana … Read More
January 27, 2025
(The Guardian) – Exclusive: In-vitro gametes are viewed as the holy grail of fertility research Mass-producing eggs and sperm in a laboratory in order to have a baby with yourself or three other people in a “multiplex” parenting arrangement might … Read More
January 23, 2025
(Wall Street Journal) – The Trump administration is preparing an executive order that would halt federal funding, at least temporarily, for a risky and controversial kind of research into viruses that makes the pathogens more dangerous or contagious. The goal … Read More
January 21, 2025
(NBC News) – As fears grow of a possible bird flu pandemic in humans, the federal government is pouring more money into the development of new vaccines, including an mRNA shot. On Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services … Read More
January 20, 2025
Hastings Center Report (vol. 54, Issue S2, 2024) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
January 17, 2025
(Wired) – What may be the first commercially available book saved in DNA is the latest example of how consumers might use molecular data storage. As the rate of humanity’s data creation increases exponentially with the rise of AI, scientists … Read More
