CGS in the News

The legacy of eugenics

By Sheila Kaplan, UC Berkeley School of Public Health | 06.20.2024

Image by Gennie Stafford from Flickr

These days, it’s a rare scientist who would admit to working in eugenics.

The word conjures historical horrors: mass sterilization of people judged unfit to reproduce, state anti-miscegenation laws, and Germany’s justification for the...

Human Genetic Modification

Biopolitical Times on CIRM's 'Depressingly Small Number of Effective Treatments or Cures'

By David Jensen [cites CGS' Pete Shanks], The California Stem Cell Report | 06.24.2024

Image by NIH Image Gallery from Flickr

The Biopolitical Times reported this month that the California stem cell and gene therapy program “seems to be in serious trouble.”

 “On first glance, it may look impressive, with over a thousand patients...

Stem Cells
A small, pink ceramic piggy bank is nestled in the middle of a woven basket full of golden eggs.

The Business of Making a Baby

By Lindsey J. Smith, San Francisco Magazine [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 03.23.2018

After spending her 20s as an aid worker in Africa and India, Helena moved to the Bay Area in 2012...

Assisted Reproduction
University Hospitals building in Cleveland, Ohio

Fertility clinic failures raise question of regulation in industry

By Ginger Christ, The Plain Dealer [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 03.21.2018

CLEVELAND, Ohio - After two recent failures of cryotanks storing eggs and embryos, a number of agencies and organizations are...

Assisted Reproduction
Josiah Zayner

No Self-Editing: Biohacker Josiah Zayner Can’t Stop Living Out Loud

By Alex Lash, Xconomy [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 03.13.2018

Gene editing has arrived. Of the various forms of the technology, CRISPR-Cas9 is the easiest to use, and it’s already...

Synthetic Biology
Three palm trees by the ocean in Southern California

Will California's $3 billion in stem cell spending pay off? First royalty check arrives

By David Jensen, The Sacramento Bee [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 03.01.2018

Back in 2004, when California's stem cell agency was little more than an idea in the minds of researchers, its...

Stem Cells
Male and Female symbol

You Can Control Your Baby's Sex — If You Believe In Babydust

By Rebecca Gale, Refinery29 [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 02.16.2018
It was 2011 and Kathryn Taylor was ready to get pregnant — with a boy. “I wanted a boy first...
Bioethics
An undifferentiated cell being differentiated into different cells. A switch is used to symbolize the changes made that allow the cell to differentiate differently.

'Less Than a Drop in the Bucket' -- Dueling Perspectives on California's First Stem Cell Royalty Check

By David Jensen, California Stem Cell Report [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 02.14.2018

California is counting its first royalties from a 13-year-old effort to develop stem cell cures and has declared that it...

Policies
Illustration of cells

The Inconvenient History of IVF

By Pete Shanks, Medium | 02.02.2018

Let’s Not Distort Debates about Human Cloning and Heritable Gene Editing

Cloning is back in the headlines. Researchers managed to...

Assisted Reproduction
A cracked light bulb is tipped on its side,a weak current is visible causing a glow. The background has an eerie mix of black and white colors and shadow.

Biopower in the Era of Biotech

By Jim Kozubek, Los Angeles Review of Books [cites CGS] | 09.07.2017

TWO TRENDS are on the rise, and one is about to make the other worse.

The first is epitomized in...

Biotech & Pharma