“A scientist in China has dominated headlines this week with the claim that his research team has successfully created the world’s first genetically-edited babies. If true, the experiment raises a lot of difficult ethical questions—ones that mainstream films and TV shows have been exploring for decades.

The topic of genetic engineering is so prevalent in pop culture that it’s practically a genre unto itself. At the heart of these science fiction depictions is the issue of whether the benefits of genetic engineering—that is, potentially curing diseases—outweigh the colossal risks, which range from eugenics to unintended mutations.” (Adam Epstein, Quartz)

In this New York Times Op-Ed, professor of molecular medicine Dr. Eric J. Topol argues the time for gene-editing human embryos may came but “that time has not arrived.”

From the New York Times

By Gina Kolata, Sui-Lee Wee and Pam Belluck

“Ever since scientists created the powerful gene editing technique Crispr, they have braced apprehensively for the day when it would be used to create a genetically altered human being. Many nations banned such work, fearing it could be misused to alter everything from eye color to I.Q.”

Looking to get up to speed fast on the news of the first gene-edited human embryo? Take a look at this accessible and informative overview for Bloomberg. My quick take on the subtext of John Lauerman’s article and Freya Ingrid Morales’s image? There are a lot of people in business and politics eager to make sense of this news.

In this MIT Technology Review piece by Antonio Regalado, “[a] daring effort is under way to create the first children whose DNA has been tailored using gene editing.”

Like the characters in ANYA, scientists are grappling with the ethics of this breakthrough technology.

Ruth Padawer’s piece in The New York Times Magazine — “Sigrid Johnson Was Black. A DNA Test Said She Wasn’t.”— shows “[t]he surge in popularity of services like 23andMe and Ancestry means that more and more people are unearthing long-buried connections and surprises in their ancestry.” With both services offering deep “Black Friday” discounts ($49 and $59 respectively) to encourage holiday gifting, DYI genetics testing is bound to get more popular and to unearth more quandaries like Sigrid’s.

Geneticist George Church’s new company, Nebula Genomics, “aims to give people complete control over who gets access to their data, and let individuals decide whether or not to sell the information, and to whom.” (Richard Harris, NPR)

MIT Technology Review's Laura Hercher asks one of the most pressing questions of our time: ”Are we designing inequality into our genes?”

“The NHS Genomic Medicine Service is the first national genomic healthcare service in the world and will allow faster diagnosis and personalised care.

The Health and Social Care Secretary has announced an ambition to sequence 5 million genomes in the UK over the next 5 years.

Where relevant, patients will be asked to give consent for their genome data to be securely analysed by approved researchers, who will develop new tests and treatments for cancer and rare diseases.”

Read the full announcement.

“Scientists in China have used a cutting-edge Crispr [gene editing] technique to repair a disease-causing mutation in viable human embryos.” (WIRED)

We don’t name it as Crispr, but the plot of ANYA hinges on this cutting edge gene editing technique. Here’s “everything you need to know about how scientists can repurpose a bacterial immune system to alter DNA, making everything from cheap insulin to extra starchy corn” (by Megan Molteni for WIRED).

A beautiful profile by Amy Dockser Marcus on what drives our science advisor, Dr. Ting Wu (Wall Street Journal).

“The number of people who have had their DNA analyzed with direct-to-consumer genetic genealogy tests more than doubled during 2017 and now exceeds 12 million, according to industry estimates. Most of those tested are in the US, suggesting that around 1 in 25 American adults now have access to personal genetic data—a figure that could spur a range of new genetic analysis services. The boom comes amid a price war in which companies offered under-$60 tests and 2-for-1 deals during an end-of-year blitz of advertising and discounts.” (Antonio Regalado, MIT Technology Review)

I got the inkling from hearing about George Church’s company Veritas and meeting business reps at the pgEd Industry Forum and Festival of Genomics that genomics is big business. In this Investors Business Daily article, Alliston Gatlin takes a look at three small biotech companies - Crispr Therapeutics (CRSP), Intellia Therapeutics(NTLA) and Editas Medicine (EDIT)- that recently went public with combined annual sales of less than $50 million and big dreams of curing debilitating disease.

Sam Kulkarni (president of CRISPR Theraputics) says “it's unlikely the market will remain at just three publicly traded biotech companies with CRISPR technology in the long run. The technology is just that remarkable. ‘Once in a lifetime may be a little bit of a stretch, maybe not," he said. "But it's definitely a once in a generation type of advance in the field. […] Here we have the basis of a CRISPR platform to create the next big biotech giants.’”

ANYA collaborator, Dr. Jeantine E. Lunshof, talks genetics & ethics. (World Post)

“After Asilomar [a 1975 conference to discuss limitations on genetic engineering], the worst fears about genetic engineering did not come true. […] The odds are that human germline editing will develop similarly, having some value as both a research tool and as therapy. And as with genetic engineering, it's become too late to ask whether or not we should edit the human germline; we can now only ask how the experiments will proceed.” (Michael White, The Pacific Standard)

“A baby has been born to a previously infertile couple in Ukraine using a new type of "three-person IVF". Doctors in Kiev used a method called pronuclear transfer in what is a world first. It is, however, not the first child born with DNA from three parents. The baby girl, born on 5 January, is thought to be the world's second "modern three-parent baby" - another child was created using a slightly different method in Mexico last year. The Kiev team fertilised the mother's egg with her partner's sperm. They then transferred the combined genes into an egg taken from a donor.” (Michelle Roberts, BBC News online)