September 2026 Newsletter

Elite athletes offer a powerful window into human biology. By pushing the body to its limits, they can reveal new possibilities and limitations for health and performance. At the same time, sports are a highly visible arena in which questions about privacy, fairness, health, and human dignity quickly become public concerns.

On October 28, 2026, PGED will bring together scientists, athletes, sports professionals, storytellers, educators, and community leaders for a forum on genetics, athlete health, and human performance. The program will feature early-career and senior researchers, as well as sports leaders with experience spanning the NBA, NCAA, NFL, NHL, the Paralympics, and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. Together, we will explore the applications of genetic technologies in elite sports – the science, potential benefits, and human questions.

By bringing people together across disciplines and communities, we hope to broaden perspectives and understanding. The conversation will generate insights to inform PGED’s future work and partnerships.

PGED’s Community Spotlight series showcases some of the remarkable people we’ve connected with through our mission to expand education and dialogue about genetics, health, and society.

Brian Schwartz is a Professor of Biology at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia, where he has taught biology for three decades. The Rev. Grace Burton‑Edwards is an Episcopal priest and senior pastor of St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Columbus, where she leads worship and adult formation. Connected by their church community, they invited PGED to facilitate conversations about the impact of genetic technologies on everyday life as part of their congregation’s weekly programming. Rob O’Malley led a discussion series for church members from November 2025 through February 2026.

Gill chatted with Grace and Brian to learn about their experiences within a church community that is intellectually curious, honest, and compassionate in its ministry, and deeply committed to the dignity of every person.

Here are some of the articles we’ve been reading this month.

Article: How Much Is That Gene-Edited Dog in the Window? (The New York Times). “A look at the prospect of gene-edited dogs, including the scientific, ethical, and regulatory questions raised by using gene-editing tools to alter canine traits.”

Article: Patient Who Received Pig Kidney Becomes First To Progress to Human Kidney Transplant (Harvard Medical School). “A patient who lived without dialysis for 271 days after receiving a genetically edited pig kidney became the first person to transition from a pig-kidney transplant to a donated human kidney.”

Article: DeepMind’s new genome ‘atlas’ charts effects of all nine billion human gene mutations (Nature). “Google DeepMind’s AlphaGenome uses artificial intelligence to predict the consequences of changing every DNA letter in the human genome, potentially helping researchers understand genetic mutations and disease.”

Article: Can Geneticists Fight Disease by Targeting “Nurture” Instead of “Nature”? (The New York Times). “Epigenome editing aims to treat molecular changes acquired over a person’s lifetime by altering gene activity without rewriting the underlying DNA sequence.”

Article: CRISPR crops are coming to Europe — why bolder would be better (Nature). “Europe’s new rules for gene-edited crops could expand agricultural biotechnology, but overly narrow limits on the number and type of edits may prevent farmers and researchers from realizing the technology’s full potential.”

Article: The Next Gene-Editing Technology May Also Be the Oldest (The New York Times). “Scientists discovered VIPR, a compact gene-targeting system found in viruses that appears to be more than four billion years old, may have preceded CRISPR, and could offer new possibilities for genome engineering.”

Article: ‘Epigenetic’ editing is here: gene-tagging technique banishes hepatitis B virus (Nature). “Researchers used chemical tags delivered by a CRISPR-based system to silence hepatitis B virus DNA in human liver cells, mice, and monkeys, offering a potential approach to eliminating persistent viral DNA.”

Note: Views expressed in shared articles are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect the views of our organization.

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