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
Human embryo under a microscope on blue background

U.S. researcher says he’s ready to start four pregnancies with ‘three-parent’ embryos

By Emily Mullin, STAT [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 04.18.2019

Researchers at Columbia University in New York have created embryos containing genetic material from three people and are ready to...

Assisted Reproduction
A colorful image of a fertilized egg.

Two moms and a dad give birth to healthy ‘three-person baby’

By Muri Assuncao, Daily News [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 04.11.2019

Oh baby!

A team of doctors from Greece and Spain announced the birth of a healthy baby boy who was...

Assisted Reproduction
Padlock attached to a DNA strand on a blue background.

Don’t Buy California’s Callous Attempt to Ignore People’s DNA Privacy Rights, EFF Tells Court

By Karen Gullo, Electronic Frontier Foundation [cites CGS and Pete Shanks] | 03.29.2019

Analyzing and indefinitely keeping the DNA profiles of thousands of Californians arrested for felonies, but never charged with a crime...

Policies
White pencil writing a double strand of DNA on a blue background

Scientists Call for a Moratorium on Editing Inherited Genes

By Karen Weintraub, Scientific American [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 03.13.2019

A group of 18 prominent scientists—including some who helped develop CRISPR–Cas9, the current leading tool for gene editing—issued a call...

Human Genetic Modification
Depiction of CRISPR--purple strand of DNA being cut from them middle of two orange strands

Call For Global Moratorium On Creating Gene-Edited Babies

By Rob Stein , National Public Radio [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 03.13.2019

A group of prominent scientists and bioethicists is calling for a global moratorium on any new attempts to bring gene-edited...

Human Genetic Modification
Microscopic picture of egg cells and embryos

New U.S. Experiments Aim To Create Gene-Edited Human Embryos

By Rob Stein, National Public Radio [cites Marcy Darnovsky] | 02.01.2019

A scientist in New York is conducting experiments designed to modify DNA in human embryos as a step toward someday...

Human Genetic Modification
United Nations logo in black.

WHO to Create Global Advisory Panel on Human Gene Editing

By Marcia Frellick, Medscape [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 12.18.2018

The World Health Organization (WHO) is creating a global panel to study human gene editing and the scientific, legal, social...

Genetic Selection
researches removes DNA from a test tube.

Editorial: California shouldn’t keep DNA from hundreds of thousands of innocent people

By Chronicle Editorial Board, San Francisco Chronicle [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 12.14.2018

California is being sued over its DNA collection practices, and the only thing that’s surprising is how long it took...

U.S. States