October 15, 2025
A New Edition of European Journal of Human Genetics Is Now Available
European Journal of Human Genetics (vol. 33, no. 9, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
Genetic Ethics
October 14, 2025
He Was Expected to Get Alzheimer’s 25 Years Ago. Why Hasn’t He?
(New York Times) – Scientists are searching for the secret in Doug Whitney’s biology that has protected him from dementia, hoping it could lead to ways to treat or prevent Alzheimer’s for many other people. For 14 years now, Mr. … Read More
October 14, 2025
Should genetically modified wildlife be banned? Scientists weigh the risks
(Nature) – Conservationists debate the pros and cons of using synthetic-biology techniques to alter wild species. The global conservation community is debating whether to ban the release of genetically modified organisms into the wild. Dozens of non-governmental organizations have called … Read More
October 14, 2025
Scientists identify key reason people may use or get addicted to cannabis
(The Washington Post) – The study builds on growing genetic research into cannabis use, as policymakers grapple with the risks and benefits of the drug’s soaring popularity. The tendency to use cannabis is associated with genes linked to impulsive behavior, … Read More
October 10, 2025
World’s first pig-to-human liver transplant keeps patient alive for 171 days
(Euro News) – The liver performed key bodily functions, proving that pig organs can temporarily support human life, though serious complications eventually arose. In what researchers are calling a “landmark” in medical science, surgeons implanted a genetically engineered pig liver … Read More
October 9, 2025
Women carry a higher genetic risk of depression, new study says
(The Guardian) – Researchers in Australia find 16 genetic variants linked to depression in women but only eight in men Women carry a higher genetic risk of depression, a new study has found. Claiming to be the largest genetic study … Read More
October 7, 2025
The AI Genetics Revolution Is Coming
(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
October 2, 2025
Microsoft Says AI Can Create “Zero Day” Threats in Biology
(MIT Technology Review) – A team at Microsoft says it used artificial intelligence to discover a “zero day” vulnerability in the biosecurity systems used to prevent the misuse of DNA. These screening systems are designed to stop people from purchasing … Read More
October 1, 2025
A New Edition of Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy Is Now Available
Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy (vol. 28, no. 3, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
September 29, 2025
A New mRNA Vaccine Has the Potential to Cure Seasonal and Food Allergies
(Discover) – The vaccine is a modified version of the COVID-19 mRNA lipid nanoparticle vaccines. To create the allergy vaccine, researchers adjusted the mRNA message: instead of producing spike proteins like in the COVID-19 vaccine, the allergy vaccine instructs cells … Read More
September 29, 2025
Should we edit nature?
(Aeon) – Countless species are dying from human-induced environmental change. Should we use genetic technology to alter and save them? It wasn’t our intention that humanity would become the planet’s greatest evolutionary force; yet the fact that we are confronts … Read More
September 29, 2025
A New Edition of Journal of Medical Ethics Is Now Available
Journal of Medical Ethics (vol. 51, no. 9, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
September 24, 2025
Huntington’s disease successfully treated for first time
(BBC) – One of the cruellest and most devastating diseases – Huntington’s – has been successfully treated for the first time, say doctors. The disease runs through families, relentlessly kills brain cells and resembles a combination of dementia, Parkinson’s and … Read More
September 23, 2025
These Patients Got the Cure. Then It Went Away.
(New York Times) – Gene therapies for rare diseases are frequently developed then discarded by drug companies because they can’t afford to produce the treatment for more patients. The problem is economics. The science is there to cure Mr. Atteberry’s … Read More
September 15, 2025
The Next Era of Gene Editing Will Be Disease Agnostic
(Wired) – At the WIRED Health summit, biochemist David Liu said his lab is on the verge of revealing a new gene-editing technique that could target multiple unrelated diseases. At the WIRED Health summit last week, Harvard biochemist and gene-editing … Read More
September 11, 2025
Crispr Offers New Hope for Treating Diabetes
(Wired) – Gene-edited pancreatic cells have been transplanted into a patient with type 1 diabetes for the first time. They produced insulin for months without the patient needing to take immunosuppressants. In this experiment, edited cells produced insulin for months … Read More
September 8, 2025
A New Edition of European Journal of Human Genetics Is Now Available
European Journal of Human Genetics (vol. 33, no. 8, 2025) is available online by subscription only. Articles include:
September 1, 2025
How ageing changes our genes — huge epigenetic atlas gives clearest picture yet
(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
Breakthrough new treatment could REVERSE Down syndrome
(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
What It Really Means to Choose Life
(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
Scientists perform the first pig-to-human lung transplant
(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
I gave the police access to my DNA—and maybe some of yours
(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
America Is Abandoning One of the Greatest Medical Breakthroughs
(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
Brain editing now ‘closer to reality’: the gene-altering tools tackling deadly disorders
(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
Inside Silicon Valley’s Growing Obsession With Having Smarter Babies
(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
