News & Publications

Gestational surrogacy has been available in the US since at least 1976, and over the past 40 years an increasing number of people have sought women willing to carry a baby to term for them. According to an article in The Economist, "Though the number of children born globally each year through… Read more

A new paper just published in PLOS ONE examines the motivations and characteristics of people who openly share the results of direct-to-consumer genetic testing using the web platform OpenSNP. The team of authors, who are affiliated with the University of Zurich, … Read more

An article in the Washington Post co-authored by University of Minnesota health policy professor Sarah Gollust analyzes the bill that passed the US House of Representatives last week. Gollust and her co-researchers conducted a national survey in March asking 1,588 Americans what… Read more

Over the past 20 years, a preserve known as Pleistocene Park has been created in Siberia with the goal of restoring grasslands once home to megafauna like mammoths. The theory behind the park, as described in The Atlantic, is that restoring the wildlife inhabiting it more than 12,000 years ago… Read more

A DNA analysis of 14 horse skeletons preserved in Russian and Kazakh sites reveals the Scythians, who ruled the area more than 2,000 years ago, were sophisticated breeders. Fierce, nomadic warriors, the Scythians are believed to be among the first to ride horses into battle, helping… Read more

Videos are now available for sessions held during the two research ethics conferences presented at the University of Minnesota on March 8 and 9, 2017. At these events, researchers, policymakers, bioethicists, patient advocates and other stakeholders explored best practices for research with human… Read more

Last week, the Consortium hosted the final of three lectures on Emerging Diseases in a Changing Environment, featuring Dr. Julie L. Gerberding, MD, MPH, FACP. Dr. Gerberding is Executive Vice President at Merck and the former Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In… Read more

In a turnaround for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the agency has announced it will "allow a company to sell genetic tests for disease risk directly to consumers," according to the New York Times. 23andMe, a private genomics and biotechnology company based in Mountain… Read more

Given the drama of the past several weeks, during which Congress wrestled with repealing, replacing or reforming the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it's an opportune time to look at the trajectory of that legislation. On March 23, the seventh anniversary of the ACA's signing, the former General Counsel… Read more

Multisite clinical trials are a powerful way to drive the discovery of new therapies, but ensuring that the health and privacy of study participants are protected across multiple Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) has slowed things down in the past. Today, the NIH reached a major milestone:… Read more