A Chinese court on Monday sentenced He Jiankui, the scientist who claimed in 2018 that the first two gene-edited babies had been born, to three years in prison, according to Chinese state media reports. The court sentenced two of He's colleagues to time in prison as well, concluding that the three violated Chinese regulations, practiced medicine without a license, and crossed an ethical line by using the Crispr gene-editing technology on embryos to make them resistant to HIV. He was also fined $430,000, according to Xinhua. The news of He's work in 2018 drew outrage from the scientific com ..read more

In 2019, science and health experts learned more about the best ways to eat, how immune cells can be programmed to fight cancer, and why vaping might be more dangerous than we thought.  Here are 26 of the most mind-blowing health discoveries of the year, in nutrition, genetics, biology and more. Visit INSIDER's homepage for more stories. In 2019, scientists continued searching for vital clues about how people might live healthier, longer, richer lives. Nutrition researchers learned more about the best diets for every person, cancer researchers found new ways to program immune cells to attack ..read more

The rapid advancement of technology is causing people plenty of anxiety — including the scientists, researchers, and futurists, working on the technology itself. The advent of artificial intelligence, drones and self-driving vehicles raises many open-ended questions about the future of technology and the unintended consequences it may lead to.  We spoke to scientists and researchers to find out 13 dark theories that keep them up at night. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Back in 1970, author Alvin Toffler coined the term "future shock."  He envisioned a dystopian future in ..read more

A geneticist at the University of California who helped invent the gene-editing tool Crispr told Business Insider she believes its most profound impacts will be on food. Several Crispr'd crops have already been made, and although you can't buy them yet, she said she expects to see them in grocery stores within 5 years. In Silicon Valley, some startups are even using Crispr to make lab-grown meat. The geneticist, Jennifer Doudna, was named to Business Insider's list of the 10 People Transforming Healthcare. Visit BusinessInsider.com for more stories. While ethicists debate the applications o ..read more

Hello, Welcome to another dose of Dispensed, Business Insider's weekly healthcare newsletter! Before heading out for the holiday weekend, I wanted to highlight some of the great work the healthcare team here has been pulling together.  The entire Business Insider newsroom got together to compile a list of 100 people transforming business. We contributed 10 to the list, spanning different aspects of the healthcare industry from insurers, to pharma, to psychedelics, to cutting-edge science.  INTRODUCING: The 10 people transforming healthcare Our conversations with these leaders led to a whole ..read more

For the first time ever, scientists have used Crispr technology to gene-edit a reptile. A new study recounts how a team successfully tweaked the genes of 146 brown anole lizard embryos. First reported by Science magazine, the scientists created four albino lizards — each no bigger than a finger when they hatched. The lack of pigmentation was a sure sign that their gene-editing trial had worked.   Researchers have used Crispr to alter chicken, pig, cow, and even fish genes. But this is the first time the technology has been brought to bear on reptiles. Gene-edited reptiles could be used t ..read more

Hello, Hoo boy, it was a week. As I started to pull together the stories that kept us busy this week, it seemed like every day had another breaking development: from the authorized generic insulin, to FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb's imminent departure, to the approval of a new depression drug, and a name for the JPMorgan-Amazon Berkshire Hathaway-Amazon joint health venture (Haven!). Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal had this fascinating update from Martin Shkreli's life in jail. I'm feeling very glad it's Friday.  I'm also curious to get your thoughts on The Journal's Livongo's plans for ..read more

Silicon Valley startups backed by celebrities like Bill Gates are experimenting with the gene-editing technology Crispr to make lab-grown chicken, pork, and beef. Lab-grown meat, also called cultured or clean meat, is real meat brewed up using animal cells. So far, only prototypes exist. The idea is to move away from environmentally-damaging meat production methods in favor of a method that could be more sustainable and less ethically fraught. Venture capitalists see huge promise in the industry's potential to disrupt the $200 billion global meat industry. Two emerging technologies with bloc ..read more

A Chinese scientist claims to have genetically-engineered human babies with the revolutionary technique known as CRISPR. If his claims are verified, the infants will be first ever babies with DNA that's been edited in a lab, or so-called CRISPR babies. Editing human DNA in this way could save lives, but many researchers fear unintended consequences. Following is a transcript of the video. In 2011, scientists created glow-in-the-dark cats. The researchers took a gene from a glowing jellyfish and inserted it into the unfertilized eggs of house cats. It was a neat trick, but they had a bigger goa ..read more

The world's chocolate supply is being threatened by disease and climate change.  By 2050, the cacao seeds used to make chocolate could be extinct. A coalition of 1,600 farmers recently released a line of chocolate bars that promote GMOs as a way to produce more chocolate — and keep the world's supply from running out.  The world's chocolate supply is dwindling. As our global sweet tooth begins to outpace cocoa production, major chocolate companies like Mars Inc. and Barry Callebaut expect to see an industry deficit of 4.4 billion pounds of chocolate by 2030. And by 2050, the cacao seeds us ..read more