A person's genetics has a role in susceptibility to many diseases (Figure), but has little correlation with how the disease may progress or lead to a fatal outcome. nature.com/articles/s4158

What to Know About Painkillers, Vaccines, Genes and Autism: For decades, researchers have looked for links. Most believe the disorder springs from a complex interplay of genetics and environmental factors. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/22/h...

In a proposed update to its guidelines, the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence retains its recommendation of three NHS-funded IVF cycles for those eligible under 40 and critiques unproven IVF add-ons. The draft is open for consultation until October 21.

Excellent piece by @alanlevinovitz.bsky.social @awaisaftab.bsky.social on the therapeutic effect of diagnosis + the need for qual research. Reading Parson’s “sick role” theory in undergrad sociology was the moment I realized how much is missed by psych models. www.cambridge.org/core/service...

“Metrics can be measured only by taking into account the starting point and ending point, as well as relevant features of the journey — the whole story.” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/o...

“Declining fertility is only a disaster if you don’t adapt" (by valuing individual lives more through better access to education and healthcare) www.nature.com/articles/d41...

What a shame that Fox News couldn’t publish this instead. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/21/o...

NEW: People are being involuntarily committed to psychiatric care facilities — and even ending up arrested or jailed — after becoming fixated on ChatGPT and other chatbots and spiraling into psychosis. futurism.com/commitment-j...

“I feel like the balance that is being discussed right now, is actually very much out of kilter with what are acceptable risks for me as a parent, acceptable risks to me as physician and what I think should be acceptable risks to FDA and Sarepta” www.statnews.com/2025/07/24/d...

Not a good idea, uninformed Front page @washingtonpost.com today www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Another tragic case of the risks of coming off clozapine altogether (and why psych meds are complicated). In Australia, clozapine takers also need blood monitoring each month, a crucial community-oriented check in that I believe helps as much as the medication itself.

“I had been the pregnant woman fetishizing the normal test result. Now that I was the mother of a child with a rare condition, I found an enemy in my past self”. Just finished Second Life by @amandahess.bsky.social. It is brilliant.

It’s also true that therapy teaches how those that upset us reflect unresolved parts of ourselves. It allows for more intentional parenting, ideally with more compassion for grandparents, & the littlest versions of ourselves. Too many boomers & their kids missed out. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/30/o...

"when deciding complex policy questions ... resisting empathy impairs our decision-making. It keeps us from understanding what’s at stake ... it is vital to ask ourselves what policies we would favor if we were ... fully informed of the plight of others." theconversation.com/empathy-can-...

🧵 Speaking at the Global Observatory for Genome Editing summit at the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in Cambridge this week, I highlighted a critical challenge: the deliberate fracturing of our knowledge ecosystems along ideological lines. www.statnews.com/2025/05/27/g...

Great discussion highlighting limitations to genetic determinism. More discussion still needed on parental pressures and variations of "autism", including insights from people with lived experience www.npr.org/2025/05/28/1...

For the first time, scientists say they have reached into the genome of a severely ill child and rewritten the unique misspelling in his DNA.

A great piece about why social acceptance and feelings of competence is everything for those struggling with psychosis. (Many anthropological studies show as much). www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/n...

Great commentary by Dr. Ravitksy. "I would like young women to really have options," for society (and markets) to make it possible to start a family when pregnancy in less risky, where workplaces are more accommodating of mothers who work, where women don't have to gamble under economic coercion...

My opinion piece in today’s @nytimes.com . I discuss how clinical neglect of medication-related harms has made RFK Jr’s stance on antidepressants appealing to so many and moving the public conversation in a productive direction requires us to remedy this neglect. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/03/o...

“ChatGPT will reify the problems that it purports to solve, and thus make itself essential: encouraging users to rely less and less on inner resources and personal capacity … with which we handle the task of being alive.” — 🙏🏼Jia Tolentino www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

"On the internet it could seem that our children were defined by the medical system, or else the tabloids. But inside the photo app on my phone, I could create a proud corrective archive." Beautiful piece on Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome by a mother, Amanda Hess www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/m...

Great conversation about the importance of human intimacy in neurodevelopmental trajectories — tech can only get us so far! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Moderating this book event was the highlight of my week! Thank you @dianetober.bsky.social for doing such important work to uncover the economic coercion and devastating consequences that egg donors face. More registries, informed consent, long-term follow up and public conversation is needed!

Join us for Getting to Patients on Thurs, 3/20, in HSW-300! Drs. Peter Stock & Julie Sneddon share “Beta Cell Replacement Therapies for the Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus” with patient perspective and discussion with @juliaehbrown.bsky.social tiny.ucsf.edu/Diabetes

New report shows that NIH grants fueled $95 billion in economic activity and 407,782 jobs in 2024. That's not to mention the countless lives that biomedical research has saved. Show me a better investment than that. www.forbes.com/sites/michae...

‘we may soon see efforts to control the teaching of climate science, or biology, and maybe even evolution once again. The playbook to take “back” universities includes much more than what we have so far seen.’ Former Berkeley Chancellor speaking up 🙌 www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

Fifty years after ‘Asilomar,’ scientists meet again to debate biotech’s modern-day threats: Risks and benefits of mirror life, AI, synthetic cells debated at anniversary of the landmark 1975 meeting | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Thank you @abortionfront.bsky.social for making this much needed, sassy and informative podcast 🙏🏼 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/f...

"Between 2019 and 2023, we found a 33% increase in maternal mortality rates in Texas, compared with a decrease of 7.5% nationally during the same time" www.propublica.org/article/texa...

“infant mortality was 6 percent higher than expected in states that implemented abortion bans” www.nytimes.com/2025/02/13/h...

"Once Zolgensma’s potential was clear [the families needing it] were left behind as the private sector rushed in," with more costs to be "absorbed by all Americans in the form of rising insurance premiums and taxes for public programs like Medicaid." www.propublica.org/article/zolg...

A good summary from the leaders at Science. And a good reminder... "These cuts should be a rallying cry for higher education to come together to make the case for the American system of research and teaching. " www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Under-resourced healthcare systems cost lives and livelihoods, with patriarchal and media biases and dismissal of basic medical expertise... It's all there in what appears to have been a witch hunt against Lucy Letby, a compassionate, female NHS nurse 💔 www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2...

Great interview about Musk’s “desperately empty hole” @karaswisher.bsky.social @ezrakleinbot.bsky.social …and 2 more events surely made him this nihilistic and vengeful: the loss of his first born to SIDS 💔and being booed off the SF stage at Dave Chapelle in 2022 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

Huge repercussions if this stuff comes to fruition

For those of us with NIH grants these updates are extremely stressful. Please report only what is confirmed, not speculated 🙏🏼

Vaccines do not cause autism. You’ve heard that before, but it's often repeated without an explanation of how we know that. Here's the explanation.

The use of clozapine for 10yo kids diagnosed with autism who are deemed behaviourally disruptive is concerning! www.researchprotocols.org/2025/1/e58031

Proud of this piece co-authored with Winston Chiong and Nora Hutchinson. May visions and efforts to improve equity in genomic medicine prevail.

My uncle asking white Australians who celebrate Australian/Invasion Day to consider this scenario (as published in The Australian):

The differences between equality, equity, and justice are important to appreciate! www.fphighimpactpractices.org/guides/creat...

The Unbearable Incoherence of Heritability: Interview with Eric Turkheimer ( @ent3c.bsky.social ) “The empirical end to the Galtonian project is more whimper than bang.” www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/the-unbear...

Michael Sandel in 2004 on how human genetic enhancements eclipse appreciation for “life as a gift” through what is epitomised by “hyperparenting … an anxious excess of mastery and dominion”https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2004/04/the-case-against-perfection/302927/

Grateful to have discovered these Narrative Medicine Rounds including this gem with Rachel Aviv, humanising mental illness m.youtube.com/watch?v=QsvW...

Great piece by @juliaehbrown.bsky.social, can’t believe I’m only reading it now! Human genome editing is still widely misunderstood. Beyond the science, medical, societal, and ethical issues remain unresolved. We must include those most impacted. Politics will play a role, whether we like it or not.

“PGT-P is no longer science fiction. It’s here, and the expectations it carries could be damaging to children, parents, and society. Emphasizing academic success in and of itself does not lead to improved outcomes. In fact, the constant attention to academic performance can cause kids harm.”

The science isn't set but it's happening anyway - Silicon Valley’s tech elite want to make superbabies. sfstandard.com/opinion/2024...