A company formed by Harvard genetics professor George Church, known for his pioneering work in genome sequencing and gene splicing, hopes to genetically resurrect woolly mammoths.
An international team has put human cells into monkey embryos in hopes of finding new ways to produce organs for transplantation. But some ethicists still worry about how such research could go wrong.
Getting the COVID-19 vaccine into most Americans' arms will involve much more than a good supply and logistics. Values such as equity, deep listening, and informed choice are crucial, too.
Exposing people to a potentially fatal disease could hasten understanding of COVID-19 and development of new vaccines and treatments. But the risks of such studies raise serious ethical questions.
Researchers are trying to learn more about COVID-19 vaccines from original study participants. The quest is hampered because many people who first received a placebo shot are opting for the vaccine.
Guidance from the CDC on who should be prioritized to get the COVID-19 vaccine was meant to be flexible and inclusive. But "the attempt to have equity created more inequity," says one researcher.
With vaccine still scarce, and eligibility differing from place to place, some people have easier access to "extra" doses than others. Careful, ethicists warn. Going out of turn is a slippery slope.
Aiming to find a cheaper, easier way than IVF to ensure human embryos are healthy before implantation, researchers paid women to be inseminated, then flushed the embryos from their wombs for analysis.
Genetic tests can now tell us a lot about our risk for developing Alzheimer's disease. But that doesn't mean people are prepared to receive the information.
When medical bioethicist Travis Rieder tried to taper off pain medication after a roadway accident, he was disappointed by his doctors' reaction: "Everybody had a reason to send me to somebody else."
Researchers hope these "embryoids" could provide crucial new insights into how to treat infertility and prevent miscarriages, birth defects and many diseases. But they stir ethical concerns.
Ethical concerns aside, the genetic ingredients for human traits are so complex that editing a few embryonic genes is unlikely to have much effect — or achieve the fantasy of enhancing humans.
Will AI in health care create a two-tiered system in which poorer people will be seen by a computer instead of a doctor? That's one concern about the burgeoning technology.
The search giant's push into artificial intelligence as a tool for health improvement is a natural evolution for a company that has developed algorithms that reach deep into our lives through the Web.
This could be a crucial year for the powerful gene-editing technique CRISPR as researchers start testing it in patients to treat diseases such as cancer, blindness and sickle cell disease.
WHO acted in reaction to a Chinese scientist's announcement in 2018 that he had created the world's first gene-edited babies, a step that highlighted the need for uniform gene-editing guidelines.
Despite outrage over gene editing in China that affected the birth of twins, research is underway in the U.S. to assess the safety and effectiveness of CRISPR tools to edit genes in human embryos.
Concerns over a Chinese scientist's claim that he created the first gene-edited babies grow with more questions about whether it worked and the possible harm he may have inflicted on the twin girls.
The Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing issues a consensus on how scientists might responsibly move forward to create gene-edited babies in the wake of a rogue scientist's claims.
He Jiankui, who shocked the world by asserting he had genetically edited twin girls, faced growing criticism from other researchers as he spoke at a scientific conference in Hong Kong.
A scientist says he created the first genetically edited babies using CRISPR to protect them from HIV infection. The move has prompted immediate criticism as premature and reckless.
A majority of Americans of European descent could be linked to third cousins, or closer relatives, using genealogy databases, a study finds. Soon it may be possible to identify nearly everyone by DNA.
A Japanese research team made immature human eggs from stem cells that were derived from human blood. The technique brings scientists a step closer to being able to mass-produce human eggs.
Several women who have had trouble conceiving children have gone to a clinic in Ukraine that is doing something unique: using DNA from three different people to create a healthy embryo.
