@geneticsandsociety.bsky.social
Last year, researchers produced the first personalized base-editing gene therapy to treat an infant’s metabolic disorder. Now, they are launching a clinical trial to test the use of base editing techniques for other children’s similar genetic conditions.
Personalized gene editing helped one baby: can it be rolled out widely?
Nature - In a world first, a bespoke gene-editing therapy benefited one child. Now researchers plan to launch a clinical trial of the approach.
www.nature.com
November 14, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Last year, researchers produced the first personalized base-editing gene therapy to treat an infant’s metabolic disorder. Now, they are launching a clinical trial to test the use of base editing techniques for other children’s similar genetic conditions.
An international gamete bank offered Australian IVF companies a "reward" scheme in which patient purchases of donor egg and sperm would earn the clinic “credits” to cover other patients’ gamete costs. 1/2
November 14, 2025 at 3:02 PM
An international gamete bank offered Australian IVF companies a "reward" scheme in which patient purchases of donor egg and sperm would earn the clinic “credits” to cover other patients’ gamete costs. 1/2
Some environmental groups are proposing a moratorium on the release of genetically modified species into the wild because of the risks such ventures involve.
www.npr.org/2025/10/...
www.npr.org/2025/10/...
November 13, 2025 at 8:04 PM
Some environmental groups are proposing a moratorium on the release of genetically modified species into the wild because of the risks such ventures involve.
www.npr.org/2025/10/...
www.npr.org/2025/10/...
Although He Jiankui’s reckless experiments genetically editing embryos led to jail time, outcry from the scientific community, and a reaffirmation of the near-global consensus against heritable genome editing, two US startups just announced similar efforts to pursue HGE. 1/3
‘Biotech Barbie’ says the time has come to consider CRISPR babies. Do scientists agree?
Nature - A company’s plan to edit the genomes of human embryos worries some researchers — but it might reflect the changing attitudes towards the controversial approach.
www.nature.com
November 11, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Although He Jiankui’s reckless experiments genetically editing embryos led to jail time, outcry from the scientific community, and a reaffirmation of the near-global consensus against heritable genome editing, two US startups just announced similar efforts to pursue HGE. 1/3
A top FDA regulator has announced that the agency plans to relax its strict rules for gene therapy development in an effort to fast-track gene therapies and boost investment in experimental treatments.
FDA clears way for faster personalized gene editing therapy
The FDA plans to unveil a new approval process for custom gene-editing, a move designed to unleash a wave of industry investment. Read on
financialpost.com
November 11, 2025 at 4:21 PM
A top FDA regulator has announced that the agency plans to relax its strict rules for gene therapy development in an effort to fast-track gene therapies and boost investment in experimental treatments.
Social and religious conservatives’ yearlong efforts to lobby the Trump administration against IVF subsidies and coverage mandates have paid off. Trump’s recently announced policy proposals fall short of the robust IVF expansion he promised during his campaign.
‘The pro-life movement still has some real juice’: How Trump’s promise of free IVF fizzled
A lobbying blitz by social and religious conservatives paid off last week when Trump announced policies that fell short of his promise to make fertility treatments, which they oppose, free.
www.politico.com
November 10, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Social and religious conservatives’ yearlong efforts to lobby the Trump administration against IVF subsidies and coverage mandates have paid off. Trump’s recently announced policy proposals fall short of the robust IVF expansion he promised during his campaign.
Immigration crackdowns and attempts to persuade women to have more babies stem are both tied to far right attempts to link population and purity with pronatalism –– a set of concerns that echoes early 20th century eugenic preoccupations with racial purity. 1/3 www.npr.org/2025/10/...
November 10, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Immigration crackdowns and attempts to persuade women to have more babies stem are both tied to far right attempts to link population and purity with pronatalism –– a set of concerns that echoes early 20th century eugenic preoccupations with racial purity. 1/3 www.npr.org/2025/10/...
Powerful pronatalists’ support for childbearing only extends to those they deem fit to reproduce –– rich, white, able-bodied and cisgender married couples. Their policies continue centuries of efforts to control the reproduction of people of color. 1/2
November 7, 2025 at 10:50 PM
Powerful pronatalists’ support for childbearing only extends to those they deem fit to reproduce –– rich, white, able-bodied and cisgender married couples. Their policies continue centuries of efforts to control the reproduction of people of color. 1/2
Why are startups rushing to commercialize “designer baby” technologies that combine experimental biotech with genetic determinism and eugenics? 1/7
November 7, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Why are startups rushing to commercialize “designer baby” technologies that combine experimental biotech with genetic determinism and eugenics? 1/7
Beneath AI doomers’ dire warnings about the threats superintelligent AI pose to humanity is a curiously anti-human combination of transhumanism, techno-futurism, and eugenics. While they are right to see AI ventures as risky, their underlying ideals are equally problematic.
Under a Mask of AI Doomerism, the Familiar Face of Eugenics - Truthdig
In a new book, Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares hide their radical transhumanist agenda under the cover of concern about “AI safety.”
www.truthdig.com
November 4, 2025 at 10:47 PM
Beneath AI doomers’ dire warnings about the threats superintelligent AI pose to humanity is a curiously anti-human combination of transhumanism, techno-futurism, and eugenics. While they are right to see AI ventures as risky, their underlying ideals are equally problematic.
Colossal Biosciences is not just attempting to “de-extinct” animals like the dire wolf, it’s also working on biotech for people, including artificial wombs and gene editing techniques that would deliver multiple edits at once. 1/2
November 4, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Colossal Biosciences is not just attempting to “de-extinct” animals like the dire wolf, it’s also working on biotech for people, including artificial wombs and gene editing techniques that would deliver multiple edits at once. 1/2
Recent embryo and sperm mix-ups in the Australian fertility industry underscore that self-regulation of fertility clinics doesn’t work. Instead, independent accreditation of clinics to ensure they comply with national standards is needed.
Time to end self-regulation of the Australian fertility industry | PET
After several recent mix-ups, trust and confidence in theAustralian fertility industry and how it is regulated have been eroded...
www.progress.org.uk
November 3, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Recent embryo and sperm mix-ups in the Australian fertility industry underscore that self-regulation of fertility clinics doesn’t work. Instead, independent accreditation of clinics to ensure they comply with national standards is needed.
Heritable genome editing, the creation of human embryos, and “making superhumans” are on the horizon, unless public pressure helps create political momentum to strengthen regulation of new biotechnologies.
McCloskey: Will it be the Wild West for designer babies?
Abby McCloskey: Reproductive technologies are accelerating and they’re bound to become a political topic soon.
www.dallasnews.com
November 3, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Heritable genome editing, the creation of human embryos, and “making superhumans” are on the horizon, unless public pressure helps create political momentum to strengthen regulation of new biotechnologies.
The first man to clone an animal (a frog) has died. His research made the cloning of the first mammal, Dolly the sheep, possible. It was also a catalyst for genetics research that has changed scientific understanding of numerous diseases and their treatment.
www.washingtonpost.c...
www.washingtonpost.c...
October 31, 2025 at 10:54 PM
The first man to clone an animal (a frog) has died. His research made the cloning of the first mammal, Dolly the sheep, possible. It was also a catalyst for genetics research that has changed scientific understanding of numerous diseases and their treatment.
www.washingtonpost.c...
www.washingtonpost.c...
Recent headlines claimed that researchers "created" human eggs from skin cells, promising a future solution to infertility, despite the study finding that the created eggs would not be usable. 1/2
October 31, 2025 at 3:29 PM
Recent headlines claimed that researchers "created" human eggs from skin cells, promising a future solution to infertility, despite the study finding that the created eggs would not be usable. 1/2
The one-time gene therapy Zolgensma can stop the progression of spinal muscular atrophy, but its $2.1M price tag makes it difficult to access. Four Chinese companies are working on competing low-cost gene therapies.
In China, a low-cost push to rival a life-saving, $2M medicine
Indian veterinarian Nirnay Murthy sought Lantu Biopharma's experimental gene therapy for his son's spinal muscular atrophy after being unable to afford Novartis's $2.1M Zolgensma treatment.
endpoints.news
October 30, 2025 at 8:44 PM
The one-time gene therapy Zolgensma can stop the progression of spinal muscular atrophy, but its $2.1M price tag makes it difficult to access. Four Chinese companies are working on competing low-cost gene therapies.
Colossal Biosciences is not just attempting to “de-extinct” animals like the dire wolf, it’s also working on biotech for people, including artificial wombs and gene editing techniques that would deliver multiple edits at once. 1/2
October 30, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Colossal Biosciences is not just attempting to “de-extinct” animals like the dire wolf, it’s also working on biotech for people, including artificial wombs and gene editing techniques that would deliver multiple edits at once. 1/2
Parents opting to receive polygenic risk scores for their embryos may not get what they pay for given the lack of evidence showing the tests are effective. 1/2
October 29, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Parents opting to receive polygenic risk scores for their embryos may not get what they pay for given the lack of evidence showing the tests are effective. 1/2
Current and former FDA employees are raising the alarm on the heavy-handed influence of political appointees. They report pressure to go on “data-finding” expeditions to support health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s theories – few of which have scientific merit.
Inside FDA, career staffers describe how political pressure is influencing their work
Current and former FDA staff said the level of involvement of political officials in nitty-gritty regulatory matters is unprecedented.
www.statnews.com
October 29, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Current and former FDA employees are raising the alarm on the heavy-handed influence of political appointees. They report pressure to go on “data-finding” expeditions to support health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s theories – few of which have scientific merit.
The Trump administration’s long-awaited IVF policy updates were finally announced, and so far, they seem to fall flat. 1/2
October 28, 2025 at 10:46 PM
The Trump administration’s long-awaited IVF policy updates were finally announced, and so far, they seem to fall flat. 1/2
The 10th essay in the CGS-supported Legacies of Eugenics series explores how early eugenicists' preoccupation w/ "optimal" body size measurements influences current racialized growth charts, which often mask legacies of oppression in their framing of what counts as “normal.”
Does One Size Fit All? | Los Angeles Review of Books
In the 10th essay in the Legacies of Eugenics series, Jay S. Kaufman shows how the science of human body size is suffused with cultural assumptions.
lareviewofbooks.org
October 28, 2025 at 4:14 PM
The 10th essay in the CGS-supported Legacies of Eugenics series explores how early eugenicists' preoccupation w/ "optimal" body size measurements influences current racialized growth charts, which often mask legacies of oppression in their framing of what counts as “normal.”
Pronatalism is not neutral: “It is a calculated political project to consolidate power by using narrative, reproductive technologies and coercive laws/legislation in ways that are rooted in racism.” Reproductive justice can counter 21st century eugenics and pronatalism.
Who Gets to Procreate and Parent? A Black Feminist Critique of the Pronatalist Agenda
Who Gets to Procreate and Parent? Black Feminist Critique of the Pronatalist Agenda in the Era of Trump, Musk and the Death of Adriana Smith
msmagazine.com
October 27, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Pronatalism is not neutral: “It is a calculated political project to consolidate power by using narrative, reproductive technologies and coercive laws/legislation in ways that are rooted in racism.” Reproductive justice can counter 21st century eugenics and pronatalism.
An experimental gene therapy restored immune system function in 95% of children with a form of severe combined immunodeficiency. A recent research update reported that the effect has persisted for several years after the initial treatments, given between 2012 and 2019.
Exposure to any germs could've killed her. 11 years later, she's living a normal life thanks to a gene therapy treatment.
New research found that gene therapy for children with a form of severe combined immunodeficiency was successful in 95% of trial participants.
www.nbcnews.com
October 24, 2025 at 10:36 PM
An experimental gene therapy restored immune system function in 95% of children with a form of severe combined immunodeficiency. A recent research update reported that the effect has persisted for several years after the initial treatments, given between 2012 and 2019.
Is a new study that involves eating soup made of genetically engineered, vitamin D-enhanced tomatoes just a marketing campaign? Widely available, cheap vit. D supplements and the unknown risks of consuming genetically engineered foods will likely make the tomato a hard sell.
GM gene-edited tomatoes to be fed to humans (but no, it's not a food safety study)
Researchers are recruiting vitamin D-deficient subjects to trial the GM tomato. Report: Claire Robinson
gmwatch.org
October 24, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Is a new study that involves eating soup made of genetically engineered, vitamin D-enhanced tomatoes just a marketing campaign? Widely available, cheap vit. D supplements and the unknown risks of consuming genetically engineered foods will likely make the tomato a hard sell.
Fertility clinics in New South Wales, Australia, have been misinterpreting state rules around how many families an egg or sperm donor could help create. The government recently granted an exemption to allow treatments in process to continue even if they exceed the limit.
NSW families embroiled in IVF mix-up allowed to continue treatment
Fertility treatments in NSW will be able to continue even in cases where the family donor limit has been breached after the state government issued a temporary exemption.
www.abc.net.au
October 22, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Fertility clinics in New South Wales, Australia, have been misinterpreting state rules around how many families an egg or sperm donor could help create. The government recently granted an exemption to allow treatments in process to continue even if they exceed the limit.