NCER Update by: Carol Szczepaniak Date:5-12-21 Mammalian embryos have been grown outside of a womb. The implications are chilling. For the first time in Developmental Biology, a mammalian (mouse) embryo has been observed as it developed through half of its gestation period (11 weeks) while outside a natural womb. Using an intricate artificial placenta that […]

NCER Update by: Carol Szczepaniak Date:5-12-21   An international research team from China and the US has made history by successfully injecting human stem cells into macaque monkey embryos, and growing them in the lab for 20 days. This kind of creation is referred to as a chimera, named after a Greek mythological monster, because […]

NCER Comments: The vast majority of adults are taking a daily Statin to manage their “bad” LDL and Triglyceride Cholesterol count, and many experience muscle pain as well as other adverse side effects. Using CRISPR gene editing, two companies, Verve and Beam Therapeutics, are intensely working on an ethical solution to high cholesterol which causes […]

NCER Comments: Diabetes Mellitus (DM) affects more than 100 million adults in the US; that’s just under 10% of the population. Diabetes is associated with a 2x increase of death due to cardiovascular disease; and on average, patients with diabetes lose 6 years of their lifespan compared to those who do not. Additionally, DM is […]

MIT Technology Review The Chinese scientist and two associates were sentenced after a secret trial. by Antonio Regalado Dec 30, 2019   The Chinese scientist who created the world’s first gene-edited children has been sentenced to three years in prison by a Chinese court. He Jiankui, a biophysicist trained at Rice University and Stanford, shocked the […]

NCER Notes: Forty years ago, Bioethics was born out of the collaboration between Beauchamp and Childress, two ethicists with very different moral approaches- one based on obligation and duty, the other on the goodness of outcomes. They were able to merge the best elements of prominent philosophical theories on morality to create a new approach […]

NCER Notes: Research has shown that the CRISPR gene editing tool (which cuts out and replaces diseased DNA) holds great potential for healing disease, but currently poses a significant risk to humans due to frequent unintended mistakes, or “off-target” mutations in DNA. A solution is being pursued, but in the meantime, a new kind of […]