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Caf茅 Scientifique

Monday, January 23, 2017 (7:30PM - 9:30PM)


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In December 2015, an international group of experts from the said 鈥渋t would be irresponsible to proceed with any clinical use of germline gene editing unless and until (i) the relevant safety and efficacy issues have been resolved 鈥� and (ii) there is broad societal consensus about the appropriateness of the proposed application.鈥� They maintained that germline gene editing raises 鈥渕oral and ethical considerations in purposefully altering human evolution.鈥� Join us for a discussion of the basic science and prospective clinical applications of gene editing as well as the legal and policy activities that advances in these technologies have triggered.

Topics for discussion will include:

• basic scientific explanation of how various gene editing technologies (including CRISPR/Cas9) work
• how these technologies give rise to new possibilities for treating and preventing diseases like cancer as well as disorders of the musculoskeletal and nervous systems
• safety-related concerns (including physical risks) of these technologies
• ethical, and specifically human flourishing, concerns regarding the potential modification of the human species now and for the future

Moderator:

Andrew Fenton聽(Research Associate, Novel Tech Ethics, Faculty of Medicine 鈥� Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy, pilipili漫画, Halifax NS)

Panelists:

聽(Director of Research & Professor, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, pilipili漫画) studies how the cell repairs DNA damage and how cancers develop resistance to radiation and chemotherapy treatment. He obtained his Ph.D. in Experimental Medicine from McGill University in the field of genetic engineering and DNA recombination, and completed postdoctoral training at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh Scotland, and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Ontario.听Funded by the CIHR, Dr. Dellaire's laboratory recently developed a novel test for measuring the efficiency of CRISPR-based gene editing in living cells, and continues to use CRISPR to develop new treatments for cancer and chronic viral infections. Click to find out more information on the , its publications, and nuclear structure and cancer biology.

聽is Director of Research and Research Scholar at , an independent bioethics research institute in Garrison, New York.听She works on a range of ethical, legal, and policy issues in science and medicine. Her current projects address聽the聽, the relationship between聽,聽and, with colleagues at University of California, San聽Francisco, the聽. She is also a member of聽聽looking at psychiatric, neurologic and behavioral genetics. Josephine is also developing a bioethics research program for high school students. Click to find out more about聽.

Discussion Questions

• What has yogurt got to do with human gene editing?
• How might gene editing affect competitive sports?
• If we can, shouldn't we create humans that are resistant to various cancers? Should we edit humans so that certain kinds of dis-abilities (like Down's Syndrome) become a thing of the past?
• Can we make sense of concerns about "playing God or the Goddess" in human gene editing without this being a question only relevant to theists?

Recommended reading

• Copeland, C., & Gerrard, A. (Spring 2016). . Dalhousie Medical Research Foundation Newsletter.
• Gerrard, A. (4 Mar 2016). Dal researcher develops technique for enhancing gene therapy. Dal News.
• Hyun, I., Wilkerson, A., & Johnston, J. (12 May 2016). . Nature, 533:169-171.
• Johnston, J., Banerjee, M.P., & Geller, G. (28 Sept 2015). . The Hastings Center Report, 45(S1):S59-S65.
• Flatow, I. (17 May 2013). . NPR.
• Orthwein, A., Noordermeer, S.M., Wilson, M.D., Landry, S., Enchev, R.I., Sherker, A., Munro, M., Pinder, J., Salsman, J., Dellaire, G., Xia, B., Peter, M., & Durocher, D. (17 Dec 2015). . Nature, 528(7582):422-426.
• Pace, N. (3 Mar 2016). . Global News.听
• Pinder, J., Salsman, J. & Dellaire, G. (30 Oct 2015).听. Nucleic Acids Research, 43(19):9379-93992.
• Zhang, S. (1 Dec 2015). . Wired.