n a dream Brian Hanley told me about, he’s riding a bus when he meets a man in dark leather clothing. Next thing he knows, he is splayed across a tilted metal bed, being electrocuted. The dream was no doubt connected to …Continue reading
On Patrol with America’s Top Bioterror Cop
Seen something strange growing in a petri dish in a friend’s basement? Know an angry graduate student working odd hours in a pathogen lab? You might want to call Edward You. As a supervisory special agent in the weapons of mass destruction …Continue reading
Can CRISPR Save Ben Dupree?
At 24, Benjamin Dupree has outlived many people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. It was diagnosed 15 years ago, after he struggled to get up the stairs without using the banister. Doctors say the disease is terminal, but they tell you less about …Continue reading
Who Owns the Biggest Biotech Discovery of the Century?
Last month in Silicon Valley, biologists Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier showed up in black gowns to receive the $3 million Breakthrough Prize, a glitzy award put on by Internet billionaires including Mark Zuckerberg. They’d won for developing CRISPR-Cas9, a “powerful and …Continue reading
On the Horns of the GMO Dilemma
Four years ago, Scott Fahrenkrug saw an ABC News segment about the dehorning of dairy cows, a painful procedure that makes the animals safer to handle. The shaky undercover video showed a black-and-white Holstein heifer moaning and bucking as a farmhand burned …Continue reading
Manufacturing Dopamine in the Brain with Gene Therapy
Parkinson’s patients who take the drug levodopa, or L-Dopa, are inevitably disappointed. At first, during a “honeymoon” period, their symptoms (which include tremors and balance problems) are brought under control. But over time the drug becomes less effective. They may also need …Continue reading
The Next Great GMO Debate
The Colorado potato beetle is a voracious eater. The insect can chew through 10 square centimeters of leaf a day, and left unchecked it will strip a plant bare. But the beetles I was looking at were doomed. The plant they were …Continue reading
Gene-Therapy Cure Has Money-Back Guarantee
The most expensive drugs in history, or medicine’s biggest bargains? Gene therapy could be both. A gene therapy will be offered for sale in Europe with a money-back guarantee, according to GlaxoSmithKline, the company commercializing it. The treatment, called Strimvelis, is the …Continue reading
Gene Therapy Trial Wrenches Families as One Child’s Death Saves Another
An important test of gene therapy in Italy is bringing joy and heartbreak to families afflicted with a rare brain disease by offering affected siblings unequal shots at life. Amy Price, an American from Omaha, Nebraska, says that in 2011 she did …Continue reading
Biomedicine Why Kickstarter’s Glowing Plant Left Backers in the Dark
Do-it-yourself biologists who hit the crowdfunding jackpot have learned that genetic engineering isn’t so easy after all. In any discussion of biohacking, Exhibit A is likely to be the “glowing plant,” the wildly successful 2013 Kickstarter campaign that raised $484,013 to create …Continue reading