Kristen V. Brown

6/13/18

How a Legal Brawl Between Two Rich Guys Could Change How We Think About DNA

It was the kind of lawsuit that would only happen in Florida.

5/14/18

I Tried a DNA-Optimized Skincare Routine—and I Was Allergic to It

The pitch was a skincare routine designed especially for me, genetically optimized to give me the skin I was “born…

5/4/18

Genealogy Tourism Is Booming as Americans Search for Identity in DNA and Abroad

Liza Lizarraga has spent hours combing through paper and digital archives to track her family’s history the…

5/3/18

I DNA Tested My Cat and She Was Not Happy About It

I was crawling around on the floor, chasing my cat, Avalanche, as she artfully wriggled away from me over and over…

5/2/18

Report: A DNA Testing Company Could Not Tell the Difference Between Human and Dog DNA

Dog may be man’s best friend, and even genetically similar to humans, to boot, but there are enough key differences…

5/1/18

Report: Police Forced a DNA Testing Company to Share a Customer’s Identity in the Golden State Killer Case

When investigators revealed last week that a genealogy website had played a major role in catching alleged Golden…

4/29/18

I Spent a Weekend With Cyborgs, and Now I Have an RFID Implant I Have No Idea What to Do With

Jeffrey Tibbetts prepped for implantation and scrubbed in, methodically sudsing up to his elbows, scraping the dirt…

4/27/18

What the Golden State Killer Case Reveals About Your Genetic Privacy

The identity of the Golden State Killer, a notorious serial killer who terrorized California in the 1970s and 1980s,…

4/26/18

Largest Study of Its Kind Identifies 44 Genetic Risk Factors for Depression

Depression is a tricky beast. Symptoms vary widely from person to person, as does the response to treatment. But…

4/25/18

The Organization That Has Run America’s Organ Transplants for 32 Years Finally Has Competition

For more than three decades, the nonprofit United Network for Organ Sharing has run America’s organ transplant…

4/24/18

How a Massive Effort to Sequence Genomes of 1.5 Million Species Could Help Preserve Life on Earth

In what will undoubtedly be the largest genomic sequencing effort of all time, an international consortium of…

4/23/18

Forget the Double Helix—Scientists Discovered a New DNA Structure Inside Human Cells

Guided by the work of Rosalind Franklin, James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the the twisted-ladder structure…

4/20/18

An FDA Panel Just Recommended an Epilepsy Drug Made from Cannabis

This year, the Food and Drug Administration is joining stoners the world over in celebrating 4/20.

4/19/18

This Gene-Editing Breakthrough Could Provide Hyper-Specific Cancer Diagnoses

Ever since researchers first discovered that bacterial immune systems could be hijacked to selectively change DNA in…

4/18/18

This Tattoo Only Becomes Visible When It Detects Early Signs of Disease

In the future, tattoos may no longer be mere decorative statements for the body, but useful biomedical devices that…

4/17/18

Researchers Trying to Map Every Cell in the Human Body Release First Data Set

Science textbooks will tell you that the human body has just a couple hundred types of cells. But efforts to catalog…

4/17/18

23andMe Is Working to Make DNA Data More Diverse

When you mail off a sample of your spit to find out about your ancestry, companies like 23andMe compare your DNA to…

4/13/18

Goldman Sachs Analysts Question Whether Curing Patients Is Good for Business

Recent advancements in science and medicine have put cures within reach for diseases that have long plagued…

4/12/18

Report: FDA Launches Investigation Into Research by Peter Thiel-Backed Herpes Vaccine Company

The Food and Drug Administration has launched a criminal investigation into an offshore herpes research trial that…

4/11/18

An Indian State Is Building a Massive, Blockchain-Based DNA Database

India’s eighth largest state is seeking to build a blockchain-based DNA database of all 50 million of its citizens.

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