Latest news with #NucleusGenomics
The Independent
a day ago
- Business
- The Independent
Silicon Valley executives are spending up to $50,000 to screen embryos
Silicon Valley tech executives are reportedly paying up to $50,000 for genetic-testing services that promise to screen embryos for IQ. These services aim to help parents select embryos for in vitro fertilization (IVF) to produce 'smart offspring'. Companies like Nucleus Genomics and Herasight are publicly offering these IQ prediction services, with prices ranging from around $6,000 to $50,000. High-end matchmakers note a rise in tech CEOs seeking intelligent partners, specifically to have 'smart offspring'. Critics raise significant ethical concerns about polygenic embryo screening (PES), including fairness, accessibility only to the wealthy, and the potential for creating a 'genetically super caste'.
New York Post
2 days ago
- Business
- New York Post
Silicon Valley parents spend thousands to screen embryos in search of ‘baby geniuses': report
Silicon Valley parents are shelling out as much as $50,000 to screen their embryos — to figure out which is most likely to grow into a 'baby genius,' according to a report. Some are even pushing a eugenics program to birth an entire generation of hand-picked brilliant babies in hopes they'll turn out clever enough to save humanity from the threat of artificial intelligence. It might sound like an episode of 'The Twilight Zone,' but high-performing babies are a growing obsession among wealthy tech executives – and they're willing to pay big bucks for it, according to the Wall Street Journal. Advertisement 4 High-performing babies are a growing obsession among wealthy tech executives in Silicon Valley. Getty Images/iStockphoto Startups Nucleus Genomics and Herasight charge $6,000 and up to $50,000, respectively, for their genetic testing of embryos – including IQ predictions – for couples using in vitro fertilization. 'Silicon Valley, they love IQ,' Kian Sadeghi, founder of Nucleus Genomics, told the Journal. 'You talk to mom and pop America…not every parent is like, I want my kid to be, you know, a scholar at Harvard. Like, no, I want my kid to be like LeBron James.' Advertisement Simone and Malcolm Collins, leaders of a pronatalist movement advocating for larger families, work in tech and venture capital and have four children through IVF. Simone said they used Herasight to choose the embryo she is currently pregnant with because of its low cancer risk – though they were also thrilled to learn that he was in 'the 99th percentile per his polygenic score in likelihood of having really exceptionally high intelligence.' They plan to give him the middle name Demeisen, after a character from the science-fiction novel 'Surface Detail' – who runs a warship called Falling Outside the Normal Moral Constraints. Advertisement A Bay Area couple have chosen to pursue IVF despite its costs and challenges in an attempt to root out the risk of Alzheimer's and cancer that runs in their families. 4 Startups Nucleus Genomics and Herasight charge thousands of dollars for their genetic testing of embryos. Getty Images But the couple, both software engineers who call themselves 'fairly typical for computer people,' also care about the IQ predictions. They used a Google spreadsheet to break down the results from Herasight, ranking the importance of each trait. Advertisement 'What percent additional lifetime risk for Alzheimer's balances a 1% decrease in lifetime risk for bipolar?' they wrote. 'How much additional risk of ADHD cancels out against 10 extra IQ points?' The embryo with the highest total score – which also had the third-highest predicted IQ – became their daughter. IQ testing has become the backbone of a new eugenics movement led by Tsvi Benson-Tilsen. Benson-Tilsen, the son of a rabbi and mathematician, said he spent seven years researching ways to keep AI from destroying humanity – before concluding it wasn't possible. 4 IQ testing has become the backbone of a new eugenics movement led by Tsvi Benson-Tilsen. – Now he's arguing that widespread genetic testing can be used to create a generation of geniuses to save humankind from AI. Advertisement 'My intuition is it's one of our best hopes,' said Benson-Tilsen, who co-founded the Berkeley Genomics Project, a nonprofit supporting the movement. He said he wants to 'enable parents to make genomic choices' – arguing that this element of choice is a key difference from the twisted history of government eugenics programs under Nazi Germany. Every morning, the NY POSTcast offers a deep dive into the headlines with the Post's signature mix of politics, business, pop culture, true crime and everything in between. Subscribe here! In Silicon Valley, it's already mainstream for tech executives to shell out thousands of dollars on professional matchmakers or send their kids to pricey preschools that require entrance exams. Advertisement 'Right now I have one, two, three tech CEOs and all of them prefer Ivy League,' Jennifer Donnelly, a high-end matchmaker who charges up to $500,000, told the Journal. 'They aren't just thinking about love, they're thinking about genetics, the educational outcomes and the legacy.' 4 It's questionable whether these IQ predictions are even accurate, according to experts. Getty Images/iStockphoto This obsession with 'genetic optimization' has sounded off alarm bells for bioethicists, who warn the testing is unfair. Advertisement 'It is a great science fiction plot: The rich people create a genetically super caste that takes over and the rest of us are proles,' Hank Greely, director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford University, told the Journal. It's questionable whether these IQ predictions are even accurate – likely only able to make a three- or four-point difference in a child's IQ, according to Shai Carmi, associate professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 'It's not going to be something to make your child a prodigy.' Advertisement Parents who turn to the technology could also face unintended consequences, like selecting other traits that come alongside the likelihood for high IQ. 'If you're selecting on what you think is the highest IQ embryo, you could also be, at the same time unwittingly selecting on an embryo with the highest Autism Spectrum Disorder risk,' said Sasha Gusev, a statistical geneticist at Harvard Medical School.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Science
- The Independent
Tech execs are paying top dollar to breed smarter babies, report claims
Top Silicon Valley tech executives are forking out thousands of dollars in a bid to breed America's smartest babies, a new report claims. Parents and 'tech futurists' are paying up to $50,000 for a new genetic-testing service that promises to screen embryos for IQ, according to the Wall Street Journal. Jennifer Donnelly, who charges up to $500,000 for her services as a high-end matchmaker told the Journal she has seen a notable rise in the amount of tech execs who are looking to pair up with intelligent partners to subsequently get 'smart offspring.' 'Right now I have one, two, three tech CEOs and all of them prefer Ivy League,' Donnelly said. Startups including Nucleus Genomics and Herasight have started to publicly offer IQ predictions, based on genetic tests, to help people select which embryos to use for in vitro fertilization, The Journal reports. In the Bay Area, popularity for the exclusive services is high, with testing priced around $6,000 at Nucleus and up to $50,000 at Herasight. Last month, Elon Musk expressed his apparent enthusiasm in the idea when he responded 'Cool' to a post about Herasight. Polygenic embryo screening – PES – is a service that is only currently available commercially, and tests embryos for complex conditions, traits, and risks attributed to common conditions, such as diabetes, cancers and psychiatric disorders, among others, as well as for traits like height and intelligence quotient (IQ), according to the National Institutes of Health. Critics have raised questions about the ethics of such testing. Potential issues include the oversight over which conditions are tested, who chooses them, what level of uncertainty in the results is acceptable and whether the service only be used by those who can afford it. 'Is it fair? This is something a lot of people worry about,' said Hank Greely, director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford University to The Journal. 'It is a great science fiction plot: The rich people create a genetically super caste that takes over and the rest of us are proles.' And Sasha Gusev, a statistical geneticist at Harvard Medical School, added: 'I think they have a perception that they are smart and they are accomplished, and they deserve to be where they are because they have 'good genes. 'Now they have a tool where they think that they can do the same thing in their kids as well, right?'
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Startups Weekly: No sign of pause
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can't miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. You'd think WWDC would cause a lull in startup news. But not in June, when everyone is eager to announce their latest deals — or even to go public. This week brought us many reminders that no startup journey is linear — but the next billion-dollar idea may only be one click away. Gong chime: Neobank Chime went public this week in one of this year's most anticipated IPOs. But the company nearly died in 2016 — until a providential check. Oh no, baby, no: Genetics testing startup Nucleus Genomics raised criticism for its new product, Nucleus Embryo, which could let future parents pick or discard embryos based on controversial factors. Personal CRM: owner Automattic acquired Clay, a startup that had raised over $9 million in venture capital for its relationship management app, which will continue to be supported. (Trivia alert: TechCrunch has been writing about Automattic for 20 years now.) ICYMI: Brad Menezes, CEO of enterprise vibe-coding startup Superblocks, has a tip for prospective founders hoping to find a billion-dollar idea: Look at the system prompts used by existing AI unicorns. Behind this week's top deals, including some particularly large ones, you will find oversubscribed rounds and VC inbound, but also hard-earned funding and bold life decisions. Slim and fat: Multiverse Computing, a Spanish startup reducing the size of LLMs, raised an unusually large Series B of €189 million (about $215 million). The company claims its 'slim' models can lower AI costs and run on all sorts of devices. Upward: Enterprise AI company Glean raised a $150 million Series F led by Wellington Management at a $7.2 billion valuation, up from $4.6 billion in September 2024. Boiling hot: Fervo Energy landed $206 million in a mix of debt and equity from backers, including Bill Gates' Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, to continue work on a new geothermal power plant in Utah. Nuclear fuel: German startup Proxima Fusion secured a €130 million Series A (approximately $148 million) led by Balderton Capital and Cherry Ventures. Last mile: Coco Robotics, a delivery robot startup backed by Sam Altman, disclosed having raised $80 million across a mix of funding events from 2021 to 2024. In March, it announced a partnership with OpenAI. Singing: Hotel guest management platform Canary locked in an $80 million Series D led by Brighton Park Capital, with participation from Y Combinator, Insight Partners, Fidelity, and others. Fresh capital: Tebi, the new fintech startup by former Adyen CTO Arnout Schuijff, raised a €30 million round ($34 million) led by Alphabet's CapitalG for its all-in-one platform for hospitality businesses. Streamlining contracts: British AI legal tech startup Definely raised a $30 million Series B from European and North American investors to make it easier for lawyers to review contracts. Based: AI sales startup Landbase closed a $30 million Series A co-led by existing investor Picus Capital and Ashton Kutcher's Sound Ventures, which was one of 130 VC firms that reached out after its Series A and product launch. Shining bright: Co-founded by Jewel Burks Solomon, the former head of Google for Startups in the U.S., Collab Capital closed a $75 million Fund II focused on seed and Series A investments into healthcare, infrastructure, and the future of work. The U.S. Navy says 'welcome aboard' to new startup partnerships. This week on StrictlyVC Download, acting chief technology officer Justin Fanelli shared insights on the Navy's innovation adoption kit, as well as advice for any startups looking to work with the Navy. Sign in to access your portfolio
Hindustan Times
10-06-2025
- Health
- Hindustan Times
Engineering humanity & where to draw a line
The future of human reproduction and genetic design is accelerating faster than most people understand, driven not by national debates or international accords, but by software startups, biotech investors, and quiet breakthroughs in fertility clinics. Nucleus Genomics recently unveiled Nucleus Embryo, a genetic screening platform that allows prospective parents to assess up to 20 embryos for more than 900 conditions and traits. These include not only polygenic risk scores for diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's but also traits such as intelligence, height, and anxiety. In short, it offers a pathway to genetic optimisation — allowing parents to select not only healthier babies but the human features they want. Orchid, another US startup, pioneered full-genome sequencing of IVF embryos for disease screening. Once exclusive to the ultra-wealthy, Orchid's services are rapidly becoming more affordable, pointing to a future where embryo selection could become a standard step in family planning for both the middle and upper class. Meanwhile, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, known for backing radical biotech ventures, has announced plans to launch a US company that would go beyond selection into embryo editing. Thanks to recent advances in base editing, it is now possible to alter individual DNA letters with high precision rewriting, rather than merely reading the code of life. The commercial race toward Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) babies has begun — and this is something I have long been both excited and terrified about. In a 2017 Washington Post article, I asked: 'Human editing has just become possible. Are we ready for the consequences?' I warned that CRISPR had made embryo editing technically feasible, but that society wasn't prepared for the moral fallout. I feared we would drift from preventing disease to designing our children. We have crossed this Rubicon. While the global community debates ethics and oversight, China is racing ahead with few restraints. Chinese scientists are editing the genes of animals — and even human embryos — not only to treat disease but to enhance traits such as intelligence and strength. Their goal appears to be the creation of so-called superhumans. Without international standards and ethical guardrails, unchecked ambition in any one country can pose risks for all of humanity. India must pay close attention. It has already misused reproductive technology: Ultrasound machines meant for foetal health monitoring were widely repurposed for sex selection. In Haryana, the sex ratio at birth has declined to 910 girls for every 1,000 boys. In a society shaped by caste, colourism, and academic pressure, gene editing could easily be co-opted to entrench inequality under the banner of 'better futures'. But more than vigilance, India must lead. With a deep-rooted traditions of spiritualism, karma and ethics, and respect for human dignity, it is uniquely positioned to offer the moral leadership this moment demands. Its scientific community is world-class, and its track record — from generic medicine to vaccine equity — shows it can pair innovation with compassion. The concerns extend far beyond reproduction. Gene-edited crops could marginalise small farmers if patented seeds are controlled by large corporations. CRISPR-based therapies, already costing more than $500,000 in the West, could deepen biological inequality. Even gene drives, designed to eliminate diseases such as malaria, could threaten delicate ecosystems like the Sundarbans if not deployed with care. To lead responsibly, India must act on four fronts. First, accelerate research. Universities and public institutions should partner with socially responsible entrepreneurs to build local expertise in gene editing, synthetic biology, and bioethics. This collaboration can ensure innovation is aligned with the public interest and rooted in Indian values rather than imported priorities. Second, access must be equitable. India has done this before with lifesaving generic drugs and can do this again. Public funding and subsidies must ensure CRISPR therapies reach rural and tribal populations suffering from genetic disorders like thalassemia. Third, the entire regulatory framework needs to be updated because existing biotech laws predate CRISPR. A new structure, co-created with scientists, ethicists, civil society, and patients, must define what is allowed, what is off-limits, and how oversight will function. Real engagement with the public, not just top-down mandates, will be essential. Fourth, India must lead globally. As it did in championing affordable vaccines, it can help shape international norms for genetic science, banning non-medical trait selection, regulating gene drives, and insisting on transparency and accountability. India can set the ethical benchmark, not merely follow it. We now have a rare opportunity to prove that scientific progress and moral clarity can coexist, but the window is narrow. We cannot rely on Silicon Valley, where profit is the only true metric of success, nor on China, where State control and repression define scientific ambition. Both paths risk taking humanity into dangerous territory. The world needs a third way, rooted in spiritual values, ethical reasoning, and the belief that technology must serve the many, not just the powerful, and this is the role India must play. Vivek Wadhwa is CEO, Vionix Biosciences. The views expressed are personal.
