Registration is OPEN for the 7th ELSI Congress! Join a global community shaping the impact of genomics on society. It's a hybrid event, so we encourage you to join us online if traveling isn’t possible. ⏳ Early bird ends May 25 🔗 www.elsicon2026.org #ELSI #Bioethics #Genomics #SciComm

This is an amazing story & scientific accomplishment led by my colleagues at CHOP & Penn, with many others. But most important of the decade? My votes: --COVID19 pandemic --mRNA vaccines --last year's cuts to Medicaid funding Nominate yours. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/o...

Perhaps all of us at Penn, Jews and non-Jews alike, should wear a yellow star.

New bioethics job at University of Colorado jobs.chronicle.com/job/37968079...

Glad to see. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...

One of the best teachers I was ever privileged to have. RIP. wapo.st/4uLNKpw

TODAY, Noon EDT - #Bioethics Seminar: Anna Wexler, PhD, "Ethical and Social Dimensions of Implanted Brain-Computer Interface Research". Open to all, attend in person, lunch provided. @johnshopkinssph.bsky.social W1030. Link for more info: mailchi.mp/jhu/bioethic...

Highly recommend.

"... if it's civil immigration authorities doing what seems to be unlawful interference with First Amendment rights? Even if that's the asserted basis, is that constitutional? I think the answer should be clearly no." | ICE officers are taking DNA samples from protesters www.npr.org/2026/03/18/n...

Update: This paper has now been retracted. cc @stevejoffe.bsky.social

Every Friday, I open the NIH Guide TOC to find multiple early cancellations of funding opportunities--and virtually never anything new.

News: Federal health officials are retreating from earlier endorsement of leucovorin as a drug that can treat autism. www.statnews.com/2026/03/10/f...

CHIBE is hiring a Managing Director! See details below and share with your network. wd1.myworkdaysite.com/recruiting/u...

We showed a 72% drop in FDA advisory committees this past year from their 20-year average. Is this a problem? A lot of folks, incl former FDA leaders and CEOs of firms that prepped for canceled meetings think so. Link to @statnews.com article below (paywall) & free link to PDF in replies.

New pub w/ my fab Penn JD/MBE student, Tasneem Mohammad! Prompted by an ALS drug sponsor's announcement that it was considering launching a trial before it had all $ in hand, we addressed the ethical role of IRBs in making sure studies have adequate funding. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Please please read this from the archbishop of Chicago www.archchicago.org/statement/-/...

😆

Claude's response to this @postopinions.bsky.social op-ed about problems with review of early-phase clinical trials in the US seems just right. I'd especially worry about the loss of expert technical review that the change would involve. wapo.st/4b8xAxw

We all knew but here's confirmation the anon official is Prasad: "You all know that as background, I’m a professor and I’m a practicing [hematology-oncology] doctor. I do miss my clinic and I miss teaching, and I miss being able to run my podcast and speak freely." www.statnews.com/2026/03/06/f...

1. It is not *necessarily* unethical to run a sham surgery trial for a serious disease. It depends on whether it's necessary to answer the relevant scientific questions and if risks can be minimized enough for the benefits of answering those questions to outweigh them.

I nominate for Headline Of The Year award. www.npr.org/2026/03/03/n...

"Aside from the internment camps used to incarcerate Japanese Americans in the 1940s, such facilities have no precedent in American history..." US Conference of Catholic Bishops statement on Trump's new mass prison camps. Full statement at the link: www.usccb.org/news/2026/th...

Why does cash save lives in Tanzania but barely move the needly in Texas? New piece in @theatlantic.com with @hthirumurthy.bsky.social: We break down the conditions that make cash transfers improve health, and why SNAP gets closets to what works globally. www.theatlantic.com/health/2026/...

🎉Introducing Dr. David Powell as a new Senior Fellow at Penn LDI! Dr. Powell is a health economist with research on the opioid crisis, population aging, working conditions, and end-of-life care. Learn more about his work: https://ldi.upenn.edu/fellows/fellows-directory/david-powell-phd

Good morning. On this *freezing* cold Atlanta morning, this news warms our hearts 💚

This is the most incredible footage of blue whales I’ve ever seen

Lots to unpack about the 1 pivotal trial default. www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.... For now a few points: 1. FDA is not legally permitted to set policy by journal article. This must stop. 2. This is not likely to give industry much stability. FDA can decide any time that the default doesn't apply. 1/

Thread. Adding to @hollylynchez.bsky.social's comments: according to @cnbc.com, Makary says drugs should be OTC unless they're unsafe, addictive, or require monitoring. We'd add antibiotics to this list, given likelihood of overuse & antibiotic resistance, threatening the public health.

Wow.

Yesterday morning kids were sent running from their bus stop in panic because ICE showed up. This guy at today’s ICE Out of Lindenwold protest is a must watch 😭. @maddow.bsky.social

How does one "repeal" a scientific finding? www.nytimes.com/2026/02/12/c...

Another instance of a center director acting unilaterally to overrule other staff (which here also involved ignoring FDA's previous statements to the company). As @reshmagar.bsky.social and I have argued, the bar should be much higher for such unilateral action: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Worth a read. wapo.st/3ZrXzur

📢Call for Papers: The ELSI of Genetic Selection, a special report of the Hastings Center Report. We welcome contribution on reproductive technologies, practices, and policies that enable the selection of genetic characteristics. More info: elsihub.org/news/call-pa...

One of the most important scientific achievements of the last 50 years was making the causal links between prior viral infections (e.g. EBV) and subsequent serious diseases.

We would like to recruit a stellar junior faculty member in the Division of Child Health Research and Policy @deptpopmed.bsky.social at Harvard. Please circulate this announcement widely! www.populationmedicine.org/divisions-ce...

In response my colleague @jimswift.bsky.social had chatgpt create new scenes for Coalie. I just spit out my tea

In this week's Receipts, I wrote about "Coalie," the Trump admin's anime-like new mascot for coal; and other failing efforts to revive manly sectors like mining and manufacturing. www.thebulwark.com/p/donald-tru...

Can venture philanthropy replicate its cystic fibrosis success for other diseases? The CF Foundation’s early bet on Vertex generated billions for reinvestment—but LDI Fellow Matt McCoy finds those “home runs” remain rare. Read more: https://bit.ly/4kisaEh

This is a painful but necessary read. Guts me what we are doing to our kids. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/u...

Recently out from pedi oncology colleagues, about "cancer exceptionalism." tl;dr: We accept therapy-induced malignancies as part of the benefit-risk calculus when treating cancer, but are unwilling to weigh them in the balance when treating nonmalignant disease. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Stop what you’re doing and read this piece, which is as powerful as you’d expect from @adamserwer.bsky.social witnessing the events of last week on the ground in Minnesota. “The secret fear of the morally depraved is that virtue is actually common, and that they’re the ones who are alone.”

What an astounding, maddening story.

Great piece. It resonates with mine on CGT "flexibilities" from last week www.statnews.com/2026/01/20/f... The FDA is kind of doing its new science policy by press release on these related fronts.

Excellent piece about why race is not a biological category and how medical education needs to respond. www.bmj.com/content/392/...

I'm perturbed by the HHS response. Yes, of course we have to speculate when govt regulators fail to follow proper procedures for changing FDA policy. And no, "an open door posture" isn't the same as formal opportunities for public comment/response. Keep your podcasts, give us regs+formal guidance.

Thanks to @jasonmast.bsky.social for highlighting our analysis of FDA's new plausible mechanism pathway in @statnews.com. Key pts: - Plausible mech is a great idea for n of 1/few - FDA needs to stop advancing policy via journal article - Impt open Qs on scope www.statnews.com/2026/01/26/f...

On NPR on Friday, there was a story of a 4-year-old--an American citizen--who hasn't left her house since early December, not even to play in the yard. And her 8-year-old brother recently stopped going to school, too. Their father is undocumented, and the family doesn't want to risk him being taken.

Wife and I in tears reading this…

Thank you to my alma mater’s president for writing this. Will other higher education leaders follow his lead?