Guests:
Laura Hercher, Genetic Counselor on the faculty at Sarah Lawrence College
Nathan Pearson, Genomicist
Chapters:
0:00 Mukherjee gets it wrong
9:13 HGP-Write
18:59 Success in gene therapy
Today we look back on the genomics headlines over the past month (and a few days). To do this we’re joined by our regular commentators, Nathan Pearson and Laura Hercher.
First we take on the science journalism kerfuffle of the year. When Pulitzer Prize winning author, Siddhartha Mukerjee, got epigenetics wrong in his New Yorker piece, scientists came out en masse to denounce it. Nathan reassures us that scientists aren’t afraid of writers.
Then on to that secret meeting at Harvard, HGP-Write. Laura gives it two thumbs down, saying it’s very normal for folks to be scared of the idea of synthesizing a human genome from scratch. So don’t make it more scary with a secret meeting and total lack of transparency.
Finally, we review some positive success stories for gene editing, specifically some gene therapies which have been approved or undergoing new trials.
