Program I April 19
Myths and Promises of t
he Human Genome Project
What is the Human Genome Project and what does it hope to offer science and humanity? How does the media impact public understanding of the project? An honest examination of the project and how it's being presented to the pu
blic.
Scientific Introduction by Leroy Hood, M.D., PhD., Chairman, Department of Molecular Biotechnology, University of Washington
Commentary by William A. Atchley, M.D., President, International Bioethics Institute,
and Joan Hamilton, Biotech W
riter, Business Week
Moderated by Michael Krasny, Ph.D, Host of KQED's Forum
Leroy Hood
is the William Gates III Professor of Molecular Biotechnology, Director of the NSF Science and Tech
nology Center for Molecular Biotechnology, and Chairman of the Department of Molecular Biotechnology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He has an M.D. from the Johns Hopkins Medical School and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the California
Institute of Technology. His research interests focus on the study of molecular immunology and biotechnology. His laboratory has played a major role in developing automated microchemical instrumentation that permits the sequence analysis of proteins and
DNA and the synthesis of peptides and gene fragments. More recently, he has applied his laboratory's expertise in large-scale DNA mapping and sequencing to the analysis of the human and mouse T-cell receptor loci--and important effort of the Human Genom
e Project and the genomic analysis of HIV (AIDS virus). His laboratory is also interested in the study of autoimmune diseases and new approaches to cancer biology.
Dr. Hood is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Association
of Arts and Sciences. Recent awards include the American College of Physicians award (1990), the 1993 Ciba-Geigy/Drew Award in Biomedical Research from Drew University, and the 1994 Lynen Medal of the Miami Biotechnology Symposium. In May of 1994, Dr. H
ood was presented with the University Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine for changing how diagnoses are made and opening the doors for miracles in treatments and cures.
William A. Atchley
was born and raised in New England. Educated at Harvard College, Harvard Medical School, Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, the University of California San Francisco, and the Rockefeller Institute, Dr.
Atchley has been Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco, is a founding member of the International Bioethics Institute and an environmentalist.
Joan Hamilto
n
has been a Biotech reporter for Business Week since 1983, and bureau chief from 1986-87. In 1985 she left the magazine briefly to help launch the BioWorld information service. Author of numerous cover stories on biotechnology and health, she i
s also a contributor to BioPeople magazine, The Stanford Magazine, and Stanford Medicine.
Ms. Hamilton holds BAs in Political Science and Communication from Stanford University.
Michael Kra
sny
is the host of KQED-FM's Forum, and is a Professor English at San Francisco State University. He is a published author and award-winning broadcast journalist. He is the former Dissemination Coordinator for San Francisco State University's Sc
ience/Humanities Convergence Program. Professor Krasny holds a Ph.D. is English from the University of Wisconsin.
Program II - April 26
Identity v. Identification: Issues of Race, Privacy, a
nd Information
How can we benefit from the newfound ability to identify and categorize people by studying their biological makeup? What are the hidden--and not so hidden--dangers? An in-depth discussion of the possible rewards and potential pitfall
s inherent in reducing people to the sum of their parts.
Scientific Introduction by Mary-Claire King, Ph.D., Professor of Human Genetics, University of California, Berkeley
Commentary by Troy Duster, Ph.D., Director, Institute for the Study of So
cial Change,
and Michael Yesley, J.D., Attorney and Author of Genetics and Privacy (in preparation)
Moderated by David Perlman, Science Editor, San Francisco Chronicle
Mary-Claire King
i
s Professor of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health, and Professor of Genetics in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. Since 1994, she has also held the position of American Cancer Society Profess
or Genetics and Epidemiology. Her research and teaching interests include the genetic analysis of breast and ovarian cancer, inherited deafness, systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis, and migraine, as well as the genetic epidemiology of p
erinatal transmission of HIV. Her research projects have also included the characterization of human genetic diversity and the uses of DNA for human identification.
Dr. King's service to the government has included participating on the President's Can
cer Panel, Special Commission of Breast Cancer, the National Cancer Institute, numerous National Academy of Sciences/National Institute of Medicine committees, the NIH Office of Research on Women's Health Advisory Board, and multiple NIH study sections. S
he has served as Consultant to the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons for the Republic of Argentina, and as a Consultant to the Forensic Anthropology Team for the United Nations. She is also on the Breast Cancer Research Program Council
for the State of California.
Elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1993, and to the Institute of Medicine in 1994. Other recent honors and awards include being Glamour magazine's Woman of the Year (1993), t
he Clowes Award for Basic Research from the American Association for Cancer Research (1994), the Walt Disney American Cancer Society Professorship in Breast Cancer Research (1994).
Dr. King holds a BA in Mathematics from Carleton College, and a Ph.D.
in Genetics from the University of California at Berkeley.
Troy Duster
is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute for the Study of Social Change at the University of California
, Berkeley. He is the recipient of a number of research fellowships including awards from the Swedish Government, a Guggenheim fellowship, and a Senior Research Fellow Award from the Ford Foundation. He has been a member of the Assembly of Behavioral an
d Social Sciences of the National Academy of Sciences, and has served on the Committee on Social and Ethical Impact of Advances in Biomedicine, Institute of Medicine. He is currently Vice Chair of the advisory committee to the National Center for Human
Genome Research on Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues (The ELSI Working Group).
He has recently been Visiting Professor or Visiting Scholar at the University of Melbourne (1990) and Columbia University (1992). Recent publications include Cultural Persp
ectives on Biological Knowledge (co-edited with Karen Garrett, 1984), and Backdoor to Eugenics (Routledge, 1990), a book on the social implications of the new technologies in molecular biology.
Mi
chael Yesley
, an attorney at Los Alamos National Laboratory, coordinated the Department of Energy's Program on the Ethical, Legal and Social Implications ("ELSI") of the Human Genome Project for several years and compiled a comprehensive "ELSI Bib
liography" that has been distributed worldwide. He is currently preparing an analysis of issues related to genetic privacy. Mr. Yesley was the staff director of the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical Research from 197
4 to 1978, and has served on several research and hospital ethics committees. Recently, he led the project at LANL to identify and publicly disclose documentation related to the human radiation experiments conducted during the 1940s and 1950s.
Program III - May 17
Tough Choices: Assessing the Benefits of the Genome
What drives resea
rch? Who will benefits from our knowledge of the genome? A look into the potentially competing interests of patients, doctors, and academic/biotech endeavors.
Scientific Introduction by David Martin, M.D., Senior Vice President, Chiron Corporation<
P>
Commentary by Norman Fost, M.D., M.P.H., Department of Pediatrics and Director of the Medical Ethics Program, University of Wisconsin and Ann Walker, M.A., Department of Human Genetics, University of California, Irvine
Moderated by Cynthia Robbins
-Roth, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief, BioVenture Publishing
David Martin
received his undergraduate and medical training at MIT and Duke, respectively. After medical residency training, also at D
uke, and a postdoctoral fellowship at NIH, he joined the faculty at the University of California, San Francisco, where he rose through the academic ranks to become Professor of Medicine and Professor of Biochemistry. He was an investigator of the Howard
Hughes Medical Institute and Director of the M.D., Ph.D. training program when in 1983, he joined Genentech as its first Vice president of Research and Development. In January, 1991 he became the Executive Vice President of Research and Development for t
he newly formed joint venture, Dupont Merck Pharmaceutical Company, in Wilmington, Delaware. Early in 1994 he returned to California as Senior Vice President of Chiron Corporation and president of Chiron Therapeutics. He has published widely in the fiel
ds of Biochemistry, Genetics, and Molecular Biology, and is the member of multiple professional societies, scientific advisory boards, university boards, and the Board of Directors of Varian Associates, Inc. He has his wife have two grown children and re
side in San Francisco.
Dr. Norman Fost
is Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Program in Medical Ethics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine. He is a graduate of Prince
ton, Yale, and Harvard. He is past-Chairman of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Bioethics, and was a member of Hillary Clinton's Health Care Task Force. At Wisconsin, he is Chairman of the Hospital Ethics Committee, and Chairman of the In
stitutional Review Board.
He was consultant to the NAS-NRC Committee of Screening for Inborn Errors of Metabolism, whose report, Genetic Screening: Programs, Principles and Research was published in 1975, and a member of the National Academy of Scienc
es - Institute of Medicine Committee which published a follow-up report, Assessing Genetic Risk, in 1994. He was a member of the NIH Workshop on Population Screening for the Cystic Fibrosis Committee on Cf Heterozygote Detection, and co-chair of the ASHG
Committee on Insurance. He is the author of numerous publications on ethical and legal issues in genetics, including recent papers with Benjamin Wilfond on the social implications of the discovery of the gene for cystic fibrosis.
Cynthia Robbins-Roth
is the founder of BioVenture Publishing Inc. and BioVenture Consultants. She holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Texas Medical Branch, completed post-doctoral work in its Mi
crobiology Department, and was a research scientist with in the Immunology and Protein Biochemistry groups at Genentech, Inc. After leaving Genentech, she joined the Business Development group at California Biotechnology Inc., where she analyzed competit
ors and new technologies for their impact on company strategy, coordinated new project evaluation, and conducted market analysis for company products.
Ann Walker
has been a genetic counselo
r for 20 years. She is associate professor of Pediatrics and Obstetrics/Gynecology in the Division of Human Genetics and Birth Defects at the University of California, Irvine. Ms. Walker has served as president and as chair of the Social Issues Committe
e of the National Society of Genetic Counselors, and on the boards of directors of the American Society of Human Genetics and the American Board of Medical Genetics. She is currently president of the American Board of Genetic Counseling, and vice preside
nt for professionals of The Alliance of Genetic Support Groups. Professional activities center around genetics education; she directs the graduate program in genetic counseling at UC Irvine and is also exploring ways to help primary care professionals re
cognize potential risk for genetic disease or birth defects in their patients and effectively incorporate advances in genetics into their practice.
Ms,. Walker's clinical interests include the psychosocial issues surrounding molecular (DNA) testing f
or genetic risk to develop conditions such as cancer, Alzheimer disease, or other adult-onset diseases, as well as the relationship between specific genetic changes and their disease manifestations. Outside of work, Ms. Walker is a birdwatcher and amateu
r photographer, and enjoys traveling, bicycle touring, and camping with her husband and two grown sons.
The Exploratorium, 3601 Lyon Street, San Francisco, CA 94123
