As scientific advances have made genome editing and other biomedical technologies more efficient, precise, and flexible than ever before, scientists, patients, and others have been exploring possible ways in which this cutting-edge science can improve human health. Our titles consider both the potential benefits and the scientific, ethical, legal, social, and governance issues associated with the use of gene-editing tools and other new technologies. As always, all are free to read online or download.
Each year, tens of millions of individuals in the U.S. suffer from neurological and psychiatric disorders including neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease, and psychiatric disorders such as autism spectrum disorder, depression and schizophrenia. Treatments for these diseases are often completely …[more]
Next Steps for Functional Genomics: Proceedings of a Workshop
One of the holy grails in biology is the ability to predict functional characteristics from an organism’s genetic sequence. Despite decades of research since the first sequencing of an organism in 1995, scientists still do not understand exactly how the information in genes is converted into an organism’s phenotype, its physical …[more]
Heritable Human Genome Editing
Heritable human genome editing – making changes to the genetic material of eggs, sperm, or any cells that lead to their development, including the cells of early embryos, and establishing a pregnancy – raises not only scientific and medical considerations but also a host of ethical, moral, and societal issues. Human embryos whose genomes have …[more]
Sharing knowledge is what drives scientific progress – each new advance or innovation in biomedical research builds on previous observations. However, for experimental findings to be broadly accepted as credible by the scientific community, they must be verified by other researchers. An essential step is for researchers to report their findings …[more]
Research and innovation in the life sciences is driving rapid growth in agriculture, biomedical science, information science and computing, energy, and other sectors of the U.S. economy. This economic activity, conceptually referred to as the bioeconomy, presents many opportunities to create jobs, improve the quality of life, and continue to …[more]
Over the past 15 years, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies) have convened multiple committees of leading experts to address ethical challenges related to innovative and emerging biomedical technologies. After reviewing prior National Academies’ reports, individual ethics principles and …[more]
On November 27-29, 2018, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and U.S. National Academy of Medicine, the Royal Society of the United Kingdom, and the Academy of Sciences of Hong Kong convened the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing at the University of Hong Kong. The summit brought together more than 500 researchers, ethicists, …[more]
Understanding Disparities in Access to Genomic Medicine: Proceedings of a Workshop
Genomic medicine is defined as the routine use of genomic information about an individual as part of his or her clinical care as well as the health outcomes and policy implications of that clinical use. It is one approach that has the potential to improve the quality of health care by allowing practitioners to tailor prevention, diagnostic, and …[more]
Genomic applications are being integrated into a broad range of clinical and research activities at health care systems across the United States. This trend can be attributed to a variety of factors, including the declining cost of genome sequencing and the potential for improving health outcomes and cutting the costs of care. The goals of …[more]
Human Genome Editing: Science, Ethics, and Governance
Genome editing is a powerful new tool for making precise alterations to an organism’s genetic material. Recent scientific advances have made genome editing more efficient, precise, and flexible than ever before. These advances have spurred an explosion of interest from around the globe in the possible ways in which genome editing can improve …[more]
International Summit on Human Gene Editing: A Global Discussion
New biochemical tools have made it possible to change the DNA sequences of living organisms with unprecedented ease and precision. These new tools have generated great excitement in the scientific and medical communities because of their potential to advance biological understanding, alter the genomes of microbes, plants, and animals, and treat …[more]
The Science and Applications of Microbial Genomics: Workshop Summary
Over the past several decades, new scientific tools and approaches for detecting microbial species have dramatically enhanced our appreciation of the diversity and abundance of the microbiota and its dynamic interactions with the environments within which these microorganisms reside. The first bacterial genome was sequenced in 1995 and took …[more]