Dr. Bryan Cwik, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and University Studies at Portland State University, will be speaking at CMCI’s Brown Bag Lunch on Monday, February 11, 12:30 p.m., in the Collaboratorium.
Title: Moving Beyond ‘Therapy’ and ‘Enhancement’ in the Ethics of Gene Editing
Abstract: Since the advent of recombinant DNA technology, expectations (and trepidations) about the potential for altering genes and controlling our biology at the fundamental level have been sky high. These expectations have gone largely unfulfilled. The ability to eliminate all inherited diseases, choose traits, and make ourselves stronger, faster, and smarter is not in our foreseeable future. But though the dream (or nightmare) of being able to control our biology is still far off, gene editing research has made enormous strides towards potential clinical uses in reproductive medicine. My aim in is to argue that when it comes to determining permissible uses of gene editing in one important medical context – germline intervention in reproductive medicine – issues about enhancement and eugenics are, for the foreseeable future, a red herring. Current research is taking us in a different direction, and discussions about the ethics of enhancement are of limited use in the place we appear to be headed. Arguing about the permissibility of enhancement can do little to solve the issues we’re likely to encounter there, and drawing the line of permissibility at therapeutic uses of gene editing leaves unresolved important questions that need attention if clinical use of gene editing in reproductive medicine ever becomes a possibility. Given the rapid pace of development in research on germline gene editing, these issues are in urgent need of attention by bioethicists and philosophers of medicine. And this urgency is matched by their degree of difficulty.
Dr. Aaron King, a professor at the University of Michigan, will present the first IBEST/CMCI Seminar of the semester on Thursday, January 24 at 12:30 p.m. in LSS 277. Dr. King is interested in studying evolution and ecology at long temporal and spatial scales using stochastic approaches. He’s done work on disease modeling and method/model/software development. His seminar talk is titled, “Efficient Scientific Inference for Stochastic Dynamical Systems.” If you would like to meet with Dr. King while he is on campus, please contact Ben Ridenhour.
Abstract: Scientific questions regarding the mechanistic operation of biological systems are often naturally formulated using Markov processes, but confronting the resulting models with data can be challenging. In this talk, I describe the essence of the difficulty, highlighting both the technical issues and the importance of the “plug-and-play property”. I then describe some efficient inference approaches for partially observed Markov processes and illustrate these with examples. I conclude by sketching promising new developments and describing some open problems.
The IBEST/CMCI Seminar Series for the Spring 2019 semester has been finalized. All seminars will be held in LSS 277, 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
Jan 24 – Aaron King, University of Michigan
“Efficient Scientific Inference for Stochastic Dynamical Systems”
Feb 07 – Bruce Rannala, UC Davis
“The Species Delimitation Dilemma”
Mar 28 – Peter Ralph, University of Oregon
“Spatial Population Genetics: Ecology, Evolution, and Simulation”
Apr 04 – Lin Chen, University of Chicago
“Integrative Genomic Association and Mediation Analysis”
Apr 11 – Wolfgang Banzhaf, Michigan State
“Evolution, Creativity and the Notion of Time”
Apr 18 – Scott Peckham, University of Colorado
“The Ontology for Scientific Variables and How it Supports Cross-Domain Interoperability of Data Sets and Models”
Apr 25 – Giulia Palermo, UC Riverside
“Unraveling the Mechanistic Basis of the CRISPR-Cas9 System Via Computational Methods”
The CMCI Modeler’s Workshop with Aaron King on Friday, January 25, 2019, is for faculty, postdocs and students interested in biological dynamics, infectious disease ecology, inference for stochastic processes and time series analysis. The workshop will run from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and lunch is included.
— REGISTER HERE! —
Registration is required and attendance is limited to the first 20 who register.
Please contact Ben Ridenhour or Craig Miller if you have any questions.
