Since Donald Trump was elected our new president the scientific community has tried to adjust to this new reality or at least absorb the shock that many felt. Responses from scientists range from “not my president” to “maybe it won’t be so bad”. Mostly it seems people are stressed about an uncertain future for science and our country overall. If you just look at a science-related Twitter feed you can feel the palpable tension in the air. How should we scientists deal with this …Read More
Politics
The REGROW Act would drastically weaken FDA regulation of experimental stem cell therapies. I’ve criticized it in numerous posts (see those here) for its radical ideas that would put patients and the stem cell field at risk. I’m not the only one concerned about it as both ARM and ISSCR oppose it too. Now 10 top patient advocacy groups together announced their opposition to it as well. The patient groups that include the Michael J. Fox Foundation (see complete list at the bottom of this email) cited …Read More
The White House seems to be getting more active on genetics in the last six months. It’s refreshing to see them actually talking about real, important science. My feeling has been that up until now they’ve been giving too little attention to science so even if you may disagree with some aspects of what they are saying, at least they are more engaged. White House Precision Medicine Genetics Initiative (see photo above from WSJ, Obama with student Elana Simon, who was honored previously by …Read More
The Obama Administration today weighed in on human germline genetic modification such as via CRISPR via a note from John Holdren, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. The White House indicated support for the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) plans to convene an international meeting on human germline genetic modification including CRISPR-Cas9 technology: “The White House applauds NAS and NAM for convening this dialogue and …Read More