Genetic engineering is moving from the lab bench into clinics, farms, and even family planning decisions, promising to change ...

Nature has spent millennia honing the virus into a ruthlessly efficient delivery vehicle for nucleic acids. Viruses have even been harnessed for our own delivery purposes. But some applications have ...

The genetic code is the recipe for life, and provides the instructions for how to make proteins, generally using just 20 ...

In an unprecedented leap in scientific discovery, a new lifeform has been constructed using a mere 57 genetic instructions. This remarkable feat paves the way for boundless opportunities in biology, ...

NEW GENETIC technologies are exhilarating and terrifying. Society might overcome diseases by tweaking individual genomes or selecting specific embryos to avoid health problems. But it may also give ...

The application of genetic engineering to food crops is controversial, and rightly so. Critics worry that changing genetics may have harmful, unanticipated effects on food safety and the environment.

Modified CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing scissors are enabling researchers to make alterations to the genetic material of single-cell organisms that are indistinguishable from natural mutations. This method ...

For two decades, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, which advises the Pope on scientific issues, has made wise observations about the importance of molecular techniques for genetic modification and ...