An influential US science advisory committee this week said genetic modification of human embryos should be allowed in the future to eliminate diseases, sparking new debate on this controversial topic.
The report by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) caused concern among some researchers who fear that genetic tools could be used to boost certain people's intelligence or create peopleRead more
What many have described as the biotechnology trial of the century came to a close Wednesday, with the Broad Institute winning the patent to a popular gene-editing process known as CRISPR/Cas-9.
The legal battle over who really invented the technology pitted Feng Zhang of the Broad Institute -- a research facility affiliated with Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute ofRead more
Scientific techniques that can wipe out invasive species or alter mosquitoes' ability to carry disease are pushing ahead, raising concerns about the ethics of permanently changing the natural world, experts say.
This fast-moving field of science -- which involves changing the biology of creatures by interfering with their DNA -- is increasingly being debated not only for human health purposes,Read more
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have found a way to boost the efficiency of a gene-editing tool, known as clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats associated protein 9 (CRISPR-Cas9), so that it cuts and disables genes up to fivefold in most types of human cells.
While the key to figuring out the role of genes or the proteinsRead more