Writing in Scientific American, Hastings director of research Josephine Johnston and Hastings Fellow Barbara Koenig say newborn sequencing should be done in targeted ways that are attentive to the needs of babies, families, and health systems.

He Jiankui, the Chinese scientists who created the world’s first gene-edited babies, was sentenced to three years in prison and fined $430,000. Josephine Johnston, Hastings director of research, responds, asking if the U.S. would criminally prosecute a rogue gene-editing researcher.

Researchers are finding links between people’s genes and complex attributes such as socioeconomic status and the time spent in school. The worry is that their results will be misconstrued, states an article in Nature. It cites a new Hastings Center project that will examine the field and advise researchers and stakeholders on how to conduct and talk about the work. The project is headed by senior research scholar Erik Parens.