September 1, 2025
(Nature) – A map of DNA methylation changes in human organs could help researchers to discover more targets for anti-ageing therapies. The visible effects of ageing on our body are in part linked to invisible changes in gene activity. The … Read More
August 25, 2025
(Daily Mail) – Cutting-edge technology could one day transform treatment for Down syndrome, as researchers have successfully deleted an extra chromosome in lab-grown cells. Down syndrome – which occurs when a person has three copies of chromosome 21 instead of … 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 25, 2025
(Science News) – Scientists have, for the first time, transplanted a genetically engineered pig lung into a human. The lung tissue remained alive for nine days after the transplant despite early signs of inflammation, researchers report August 25 in Nature … Read More
August 22, 2025
(MIT Technology Review) – My relatives didn’t get a vote when I added my genetic profile to a crime-fighting database. In 2018, police in California announced they’d caught the Golden State Killer, a man who had eluded capture for decades. They … Read More
August 19, 2025
(New York Times) – The Department of Health and Human Services recently announced it would wind down 22 mRNA vaccine development projects under the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, halting nearly $500 million in investments. This decision … Read More
August 15, 2025
(Nature) – Stunning results in mice herald gene-editing advances for neurological diseases. Scientists are closing in on the ability to apply genome editing to a formidable new target: the human brain. In the past two years, a spate of technological … 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
(NBC News) – The vaccine doesn’t prevent cancer from happening in the first place, but an early-phase trial found it could reduce the odds of recurrence. In an early trial, a one-size-fits-all vaccine showed promise in preventing hard-to-treat pancreatic cancers … 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 31, 2025
(Science) – Analysis of DNA from 23andMe users points to variants in genes linked to brain function and sense of rhythm In The King’s Speech, the 2010 biopic that portrays the United Kingdom’s King George VI’s lifelong struggle with his … Read More
July 25, 2025
(MIT Technology Review) – It has been a grim few months for the Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) community. There had been some excitement when, a couple of years ago, a gene therapy for the disorder was approved by the US … Read More
July 23, 2025
European Journal of Human Genetics (vol. 33, no. 7, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
July 22, 2025
(NBC News) – Scientists looked at the genes of millions of people to determine which ones are linked to obesity — and developed a way to screen people before age 5. Certain genetic variants can affect how a person’s body … Read More
July 21, 2025
(Axios) – An unusual public feud between the Food and Drug Administration and a maker of gene therapies for rare diseases could test the Trump administration’s willingness to pull certain approved drugs from the market over safety concerns. The big … 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
(Esquire) – In the fall of 2003, I slipped on the ice leaving my office one night. My hip hurt for a year afterward, but mostly I ignored it. When the pain didn’t go away, I saw my doctor, who … 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
July 11, 2025
(Hastings Center) – A multisite research team has issued ethical and policy recommendations for first-in-human clinical trials involving the transplantation of pig kidneys into humans. The first trial has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and could … Read More
July 9, 2025
European Journal of Human Genetics (vol. 33, no. 6, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
July 4, 2025
The New England Journal of Medicine (vol. 392, no. 22, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
June 30, 2025
(Wall Street Journal) – Among members of the Richardson family who carry a mutation in the PSEN1 gene, the average age when symptoms start is 39 Hannah’s family has a history of a rare genetic mutation that, when inherited, virtually … Read More