Genetic engineering

A new study from an international team of geneticists is suggesting we are further away than many realize from being able to effectively genetically select for complex polygenic traits such as IQ or height and create designer babies.

Under a DARPA contract, Raytheon is using synthetic biology techniques to produce two new strains of bacteria – one to seek out hidden explosives below ground and another on the surface that glows when they're found.

CRISPR is a powerful gene-editing tool – but it has its own problems too. Now, Harvard and MIT scientists have created a new approach called prime editing, which could correct almost 90 percent of disease-causing genes.

Humanity is poised to take a huge leap forward, as a convergence of next-gen technologies combine to give us unprecedented power over our own biology. Here's a roadmap to the key technologies and how it's going to play out in the coming decades.

When someone has a severe burn, a protective covering needs to be temporarily grafted onto the wound site. Although that covering typically consists of skin from a human cadaver, live-cell pig skin has now been used on a patient for the first time.

Scientists have used the CRISPR gene-editing tool to give fruit flies a new evolutionary advantage – the ability to eat poison and store it in their bodies.

Despite a published study saying different, Oxitec and experts argue that a genetically-modified mosquito release program in Brazil was safe after all.

An experimental pest control method using genetically-modified mosquitoes has gone wrong, mixing mutant genes into Brazil's wild mosquito population.

The CRISPR tool is often referred to as “genetic scissors,” but a new improvement turns it into a “genetic Swiss Army Knife.”

Researchers have managed to successfully edit the genes of lizards with CRISPR for the first time, turning them albino.

Researchers at the Salk Institute are approaching gene-editing technology with some very big-picture thinking, looking to tweak the genes of humankind’s most commonly sown crops so they store more carbon dioxide underground as a way of fighting climate change

A Stanford University team is developing plants that can better absorb iron from the soil. By making it easier to ingest the trace mineral, it may be possible to open up the roughly one-third of the world's arable land that is unsuitable for growing staples like maize and soybeans.