Search Results for: human genetic modification

Mixed Nuffield Council Report Too Aspirational on Human Genetic Modification

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Designer-baby

It’s an odd confluence of events this week that (A) the Nuffield Council, an ethics think tank, gives a thumbs up in a new report to heritable human genetic modification that would probably include using CRISPR in the same week that (B) a new paper reports that CRISPR can cause unpredictable genomic damage and several other concerning reports […]

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4 key reasons Mitalipov paper doesn’t herald safe CRISPR human genetic modification

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CRISPR-dart-board

We can be confident that human genetic modification via CRISPR’ing of embryos soon will be safe and effective after that new exciting Mitalipov team paper, right? Wrong. The reality is far more complicated and interesting on the tech side. In a nutshell, I see the paper as a significant scientific, but not necessarily medical advance.

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CRISPR, human genetic modification, & a needed course correction

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coverGMO-e1498086048321

Are designer babies made using CRISPR or other genetic modification technologies closer to reality today? If so, what exactly should we do about it? Researchers can use CRISPR to genetically modify just about any organism or its cells, but targeting humans is the subject of the most intense discussion including using CRISPR in the human germline

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National Academies panel leaves door a crack open to future human genetic modification

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Early-human-embryos

A National Academies panel on human genome editing chaired by Alta Charo and Richard Hynes released its report today. While it covered both somatic and germline (heritable) human genetic modification, the latter topic is far more contentious. You can see the National Academies summary of their report here. You can read the full report here.

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Perspectives: no human genetic modification moratorium from organizers of #GeneEditSummit

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GeneEditSummit

I just got back from a historic summit on human genetic modification in Washington, D.C. New genetic modification technology, termed CRISPR-Cas9, has both made genetic modification a relatively simple matter for scientists and human genetic modification much more likely in the near future. Heritable human genetic modification could prevent some rare genetic diseases so there

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GMO Sapiens book teaser: time to talk frankly on human genetic modification

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GMO-Sapiens-Book-Cover

I’ve written a new book on human genetic modification. This is my second book as the first one was Stem Cells: An Insider’s Guide, which is currently the top stem cell book on Amazon. The new book is called GMO Sapiens: The Life-Changing Science of Designer Babies.  You can pre-order it here at Amazon or over here at my publisher’s

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Poll: Is sex a form of human genetic modification?

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Sex-GM

Is sex a form of genetic modification? A fairly common argument out there is that human decisions about mates and then their actual sexual reproduction are forms of human genetic modification. Sex is also sometimes equated with genetic modification of organisms by a few scientists. What do you think? Are these things equivalent? Similar? Not

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Trump makes case for germline human genetic modification?

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Human-genetic-modification

Flying out of Portland Airport yesterday, I saw these magazines side by side: Trump and genetic modification of humans. Hmmm. That’s a humorous juxtaposition and the two covers are oddly similar in design. It go me thinking… Could using germline human genetic modification be a wise thing to do in some cases? After all, humanity

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