The summit organised in early December 2015 considered in depth the various issues (technical, scientific, societal and ethical) raised by the prospect of genome editing using the extremely effective CRISPR system. Germline ...

Two clinical trials using CRISPR technology to engineer the T cells of cancer patients by inactivating the gene for immune checkpoint molecule PD-1 are (almost) underway, one in the USA and the other in China. The less ...

The recently announced “Cancer moonshot” may be greeted with scepticism: the previous “War on cancer” (1971) was not very successful. However the current plan seems well targeted, with emphasis not only on research investment ...

The recently proposed « HGP-write » project aims to synthetize a full human genome and to introduce it into cells. This ambitious endeavour is fraught with financial and technical uncertainties and, if successful, would ...

A newly established company called Grail and spun out from Illumina promises to develop a “liquid biopsy” test suitable for asymptomatic cancer detection and general screening. While the necessary sensitivity may be ...

A Genome Wide Association Study on propensity to motion sickness published by 23andMe gives interesting results, shows validity for self-reported phenotypic information and underlines the value of the model developed by ...

A demonstration of (somewhat) specific differential RNA content and DNA methylation in sperm from obese individuals opens the possibility of epigenetic transmission to offspring.

Le Prix Nobel de Chimie récompense cette année trois chercheurs qui ont découvert des mécanismes majeurs par lesquels les cellules réparent en permanence les altérations apparues dans leur ADN. Ces travaux remontent aux ...

The SEER site set up by the NCI provides an opportunity to generate ad hoc graphs of cancer statistics over the last forty years, makes it possible to examine commonly held assumptions such as a “cancer epidemic” and allows ...

The synthesis of a minimal bacterial genome comprising only 473 genes is an impressive achievement, yet it is only a step towards a really synthetic genome based on first principles: this set of genes was derived from a ...