The 2016 George H. and Fay C. Sparks Forum on Ethics and Engineering features Dr. Kenneth Oye’s talk “Somatic Cell Gene Therapy, Germline Gene Therapy, and Gene Drives: Ethical, Legal, and Economic Challenges.”  A reception follows the event. The event is hosted by the Center for Ethics and Technology and can count as one hour of in-person RCR compliance training for applicable NSF and NIH trainees (there will be an RCR sign-in sheet at the event).

Abstract: Efficient gene sequencing, enhanced analytic methods to identify targets, and accurate fast gene editing tools to make changes have contributed to a revolution in applied genomics. While all of these applications are enabled by CRISPR Cas9, the ethical, legal and economic challenges posed vary widely, with serious economic challenges for somatic gene therapy, with thorny ethical issues for developers and consumers of human germline modification, and with fundamental problems defining the appropriate scope and extent of consultation for first generation gene drives.                                              

Featured Speaker: Kenneth Oye is the Director of the MIT Program on Emerging Technologies, with a joint appointment in Political Science and Engineering Systems. Professor Oye serves as Director of Policy and Practices in NSF SynBERC, a faculty research lead at the MIT Center for Biomedical Innovation, a faculty affiliate of the MIT Synthetic Biology Center and a member of the Advisory Board of the International Risk Governance Council. His recent articles include pieces on gene drives in Science, on yeast based opiate production in Nature, on drug licensing in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and on the environmental effects of synthetic biology in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences. He holds a B.A. in Economics and Political Science with Highest Honors from Swarthmore College and a Ph.D. in Political Science with the Chase Dissertation Prize from Harvard University.