Genetic engineering

Spain’s northern coast has been fighting a months-long assault from a ‘white tide’ of plastic pellets dumped by a Dutch-registered ship.

Spain’s northern coast has been fighting a months-long assault from a ‘white tide’ of plastic pellets dumped by a Dutch-registered shipping-vessel.

Modern medicine has produced many kinds of high-tech miracles, among them gene therapy to correct malfunctioning genes, 

Humans have practiced genetic modification, or genetic engineering (GE), of plants and animals through selection and breeding for more than 10,000 years. It’s called agriculture.

Humans have practiced genetic modification, or genetic engineering (GE), of plants and animals through selection and breeding for more than 10,000 years. It’s called agriculture.

During my lifetime, there have been several seminal breakthroughs in medicine that greatly changed our ability to prevent or treat disease. Part 1, below, describes several of them. I have a good idea of what some of the next ones will be.

Our conversation starts with Britain's King Charles and his past antagonism toward molecular genetic engineering.

I have a long-standing interest in sickle cell anemia, a genetic abnormality that is the scourge of approximately 100,000 Americans, primarily Black, who are afflicted with it.

How many people around the world are currently living in poverty? The World Bank reports that a little over 9%, or approximately 720 million people, are subsisting on less than US$2.15 a day. 

There has been a great deal of buzz in recent years about the importance of the human microbiome; much of it focused on the gut microbiome and the importance of these mic