Josephine Johnston

Josephine Johnston is an expert in the ethics of emerging biotechnologies. Her research addresses developments in genetics, including prenatal testing, gene editing, and newborn sequencing. She holds degrees in law and bioethics. In addition to numerous scholarly publications, her commentaries have appeared in STAT News, The New Republic, Time, The Washington Post, and The Scientist. She is interviewed frequently by the press, appearing in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Wired, and Vice Media and on ABC’s Nightline. Her current projects address the ethical implications of new kinds of prenatal genetic tests, the relationship between gene editing technologies and understandings of human flourishing, and, with colleagues at UC San Francisco, the potential use of genetic sequencing technology in newborns. She is also a member of Columbia University Medical Center’s Center for Excellence in Ethical, Legal and Social Implications looking at psychiatric, neurologic and behavioral genetics.