Afleveringen
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Science Policy, Soft Power, and Responsible Development: Reflections on the AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship at the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office
Hybrid | Jason Delborne spent the 2023-24 academic year as an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow in Washington, DC, working at the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office
Jason Delborne, PhDProfessor at NC State University | ProfileJason joined NC State in 2013 as a GES cluster faculty member and is tenured in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources. His research focuses on stakeholder and public engagement surrounding emerging environmental biotechnologies, such as the genetically engineered American chestnut tree and genetic biocontrol for invasive species. He spent the 2023-24 academic year as an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow in Washington, DC, where he worked at the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office. This will be Jason’s final semester at NC State, as he will begin a new faculty position in science and technology policy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Public Affairs in January 2025.
AbstractAAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowships (STPF) provide opportunities to scientists and engineers to learn first-hand about policymaking and contribute their knowledge and analytical skills in the policy realm. Fellows serve yearlong assignments in the federal government and represent a broad range of backgrounds, disciplines, and career stages. Each year, STPF adds to a growing corps nearly 4,000 strong of policy-savvy leaders working across academia, government, nonprofits, and industry to serve the nation and citizens around the world.As an executive branch fellow, Jason Delborne spent the 2023-24 academic year on scholarly reassignment to the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office. In this capacity, he learned about the practice of science and technology policy within an agency that exercised “soft power” to convene and coordinate federal research and development efforts on nanotechnology. In particular, he focused on the National Nanotechnology Initiative’s explicit goal of “responsible development,” organizing a workshop to reinvigorate a network of social scientists attending to nanotechnology. Jason will reflect on his experience and answer questions about the fellowship as a potential career path for graduate students in the social, natural, and physical sciences.
Related links:
Science & Technology Policy FellowshipsNational Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO)Download seminar posterGES Colloquium is jointly taught by Drs. Dawn Rodriguez-Ward and Katie Barnhill, who you may contact with any class-specific questions. The Podcast is produced by Patti Mulligan. Colloquium will be held in person in the 1911 Building, room 129, and live-streamed via Zoom.
Please subscribe to the GES newsletter and LinkedIn for updates.
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GES Center at NC State University—Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.
Find out more at https://ges-center-lectures-ncsu.pinecast.co
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Final GES Colloquium podcast of Spring 2024
Investigating the societal and ethical implications of synthetic cellsBarbara Herr Harthorn, PhD, Research Professor of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara
Profile | DOWNLOAD SEMINAR POSTER
This talk introduces 3 ongoing NSF-funded collaborative interdisciplinary projects investigating US public and expert views on bottom-up synthetic cells using a responsible research and innovation framework.
AbstractBased on three collaborative interdisciplinary research projects on bottom synthetic cells in development in the US on which she is PI, this paper presents an overview of findings on diverse publics’ perceptions of the benefits and risks of new syn cells and some of the main drivers of these views. The research uses a mixed qualitative and quantitative methodological toolkit based on semi-structured interviews, a large representative national survey, and public deliberations. Professor Harthorn examines the range and nuances of public views on these in-the-making science and engineering innovations and promises of enchanted futures, evolution-defying bioengineered life, and economic benefits. In spite of enduring techno-optimism, U.S. publics’ concerns center on the role of such technologies in accelerating economic and social inequalities and injustice. The project also explores public perceived boundaries between living/nonliving, perceived characteristics of life, and other factors that differentiate syn cell perceptions from those of other emerging technologies. The implications of these findings for technological governance and participatory democracy will be discussed.
Speaker BioBarbara Herr Harthorn is Professor Emerita and Research Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California at Santa Barbara. She is a medical, cultural, and psychological anthropologist whose research for the past 2 decades has focused on risk perception and public deliberation on societal and ethical aspects of new technologies, including nanotechnologies, fracking, and, currently, synthetic biology/synthetic cells. She served as founding Director and PI of the NSF national center, NSEC: Center for Nanotechnology in Society at the University of California at Santa Barbara (CNS-UCSB) from 2005-2017. In the CNS, she led international, interdisciplinary teams using mixed social science research methods to study risk and benefit perception regarding new technologies among experts and lay publics in the US and abroad. Since 2019, she has been conducting research on public and expert perceptions of synthetic biology and bottom-up synthetic cells within a responsible research and innovation framework. Dr. Harthorn’s publications include The Social Life of Nanotechnology (2012, Routledge, with John Mohr) and Risk, Culture & Health Inequality: Shifting Perceptions of Danger and Blame (2003, Greenwood/Praeger, with Laury Oaks) and numerous chapters, reports, and articles in risk analysis, social science, science and technology studies, science policy, environmental science, and nanoscience journals. She has given invited expert testimony on science in society issues to the US Congressional National Nanotechnology Caucus, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), the NAS, the US National Nanotechnology Initiative, the US Multi-Agency group on Synthetic Biology, and the European Commission, among many others. Her past work included over a decade of research on Latina/o farmworker health and risk perceptions in California. She is an elected Fellow of the American Anthropological Association, the Society for Applied Anthropology, and the AAAS.
GES Colloquium is jointly taught by Drs. Jen Baltzegar and Dawn Rodriguez-Ward, who you may contact with any class-specific questions. The Podcast is produced by Patti Mulligan. Colloquium will be held in person in the 1911 Building, room 129, and live-streamed via Zoom.
Please subscribe to the GES newsletter and LinkedIn for updates.
Genetic Engineering and Society CenterColloquium Home | Zoom Registration | Watch Colloquium Videos | LinkedIn | Newsletter
GES Center at NC State University—Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.
Find out more at https://ges-center-lectures-ncsu.pinecast.co
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Gene technology in aquaculture: Potential, constraints, and first products to commercialization<h4>Eric Hallerman, PhD, Emeritus Professor, Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, Virginia Tech University</h4>
While aquaculture biotechnology has the potential to improve the sustainability of aquaculture, its realization will depend upon enabling public policy.
Download seminar poster
AbstractAquaculture products are important to human nutrition, especially in developing countries. To meet growing global demand, aquaculture must improve production systems and farmed stocks, the latter using both selective breeding and gene technology. Fishes are excellent systems for gene technology, and numerous transgenic and gene-edited lines have been developed. While there has been considerable R&D, there has been little penetration of the marketplace. The reasons for this will be considered, with a case study focusing on the development and regulatory oversight of the AquAdvantage Atlantic salmon, the first genetically modified animal approved for use as food globally. Two gene-edited marine fishes have been approved for sale in Japan. Will other animal products of gene technology be approved? To realize the benefits of animal biotechnology, we will need not just innovation, but also enabling regulation creating a pathway to the market, and engagement with the private and NGO sectors and the public.
Related links:
Heritable Genetic Modification in Food Animals, NASEMSAAA Animal Biotechnology Resources: https://www.isaaa.org/kc/proceedings/animalbiotechnologyHallerman, E., J. Bredlau, L.S. Camargo, et al. 2024. Enabling regulatory policy globally will promote realization of the potential of animal biotechnology. CABI Agriculture and Life Sciences, 5: 25. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43170-024-00221-6. PDFSpeaker BioEric Hallerman is a recently retired Professor of Fish Conservation at Virginia Tech University and is currently serving as the Chair of the ad hoc committee appointed by the National Academies to explore heritable genetic modifications of food animals. His research has included conservation genetics of fishes and mollusks, aquaculture genetics, and aquaculture biotechnology and policy. He has done research on gene transfer in fish, effective confinement of aquaculture species, ecological risk assessment for genetically modified fish, and related public policies. He has done such work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and several NGOs. He has served on several committees of the National Academy of Sciences with mandates in these areas and organized several international workshops on animal biotechnology policy.
GES Colloquium is jointly taught by Drs. Jen Baltzegar and Dawn Rodriguez-Ward, who you may contact with any class-specific questions. The Podcast is produced by Patti Mulligan. Colloquium will be held in person in the 1911 Building, room 129, and live-streamed via Zoom.
Please subscribe to the GES newsletter and LinkedIn for updates.
Genetic Engineering and Society CenterColloquium Home | Zoom Registration | Watch Colloquium Videos | LinkedIn | Newsletter
GES Center at NC State University—Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.
Find out more at https://ges-center-lectures-ncsu.pinecast.co
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How essences distort our understanding of genes: Implications for eugenics and GMO attitudes<h4>Steven Heine, PhD, Professor of Cultural & Social Psychology, University of British Columbia</h4>
Profile | @StevenHeine4How psychological biases of essentialism distort the ways people understand genetics, eugenics, and GMO products.
<h5>Download seminar poster </h5>AbstractPeople the world over are essentialist thinkers – they are attracted to the idea that hidden essences make things as they are. And because genetic concepts remind people of essences, they tend to think of genes in ways similar to essences. That is, people tend to think about genetic causes as immutable, deterministic, natural, and they create homogenous and discrete groups. I will discuss the results of a number of psychological experiments that reveals how people’s essentialist biases distort the way that they understand genetic causes. In particular, I’ll discuss the relationships between essentialist thinking, eugenic beliefs, and attitudes towards GMO products.
Related links:
DNA Is Not Destiny: The Remarkable, Completely Misunderstood Relationship between You and Your Genes, Steven HeineSpeaker BioSteven J. Heine is a Professor of Social and Cultural Psychology and a Distinguished University Scholar at the University of British Columbia. After receiving his PhD from the University of British Columbia in 1996, he had visiting positions at Kyoto University and Tokyo University, and was on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania before returning to British Columbia. Heine has published several dozen journal articles in such periodicals as Science, Nature, and Behavioral and Brain Sciences He has authored the best-selling textbook in its field, entitled “Cultural Psychology,” and has written a trade book called “DNA is not Destiny.” Heine has received numerous international awards and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Heine’s research focuses on a few topics that converge on how people come to understand themselves and their worlds. One of his main projects, which is the topic of his presentation, focuses on genetic essentialism, which explores how people make sense of genetic ideas. Quite typically, people have an overly fatalistic understanding about how genes influence their lives. For example, he finds that when people learn that genes relate to their risk for obesity they subsequently tend to eat more junk food, as they feel that their weight is beyond their control. He has explored how people’s essentialist views of genetics affects their support for eugenics and GMO products.
GES Colloquium is jointly taught by Drs. Jen Baltzegar and Dawn Rodriguez-Ward, who you may contact with any class-specific questions. The Podcast is produced by Patti Mulligan. Colloquium will be held in person in the 1911 Building, room 129, and live-streamed via Zoom.
Please subscribe to the GES newsletter and LinkedIn for updates.
Genetic Engineering and Society CenterColloquium Home | Zoom Registration | Watch Colloquium Videos | LinkedIn | Newsletter
GES Center at NC State University—Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.
Find out more at https://ges-center-lectures-ncsu.pinecast.co
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Eugenics and the Welfare State in North Carolina +Anna Krome-Lukens, PhD, Teaching Associate Professor, Public Policy at UNC-Chapel Hill
Profile | Download seminar poster In North Carolina, social reformers and welfare officials relied on eugenics ideology as they built the welfare state before the New Deal, with lasting effects for our contemporary definitions of citizenship.
AbstractBetween 1929 and 1977, North Carolina officials approved the surgical sterilization of over 7,600 people under the aegis of the state’s eugenics program. To help explain the persistence of this program, I turn to its roots, since rationales for eugenics offered in the first three decades of the twentieth century shaped the course of the program for years to come. In this talk, I analyze the growing appeal of eugenics to influential white North Carolinians who debated and promoted eugenics from 1900 onward. These social reformers honed their ideas about eugenic fitness and the need to preserve the Anglo-Saxon race while they built a statewide social welfare apparatus. Their statewide grid of welfare offices later became the basis for distribution of New Deal funds.
In building this statewide welfare system, reformers and social workers eagerly explored eugenics as a solution to social problems, then refashioned and interpreted eugenic principles for a broader audience. They linked principles of eugenics to ideas that already had broad support among white middle-class North Carolinians, including Christian charity, racial segregation, and a celebration of the state’s Anglo-Saxon heritage. They also relied on eugenics-inspired metaphors to rationalize the unequal distribution of welfare services, giving new force and apparent scientific legitimacy to longstanding prejudices about the undeserving poor. They trained a new generation of professional social workers to see eugenically “unfit” people as undeserving of social services, and they promised that segregation and sterilization would curb the costs of social welfare programs. Ultimately, North Carolina’s white social reformers built eugenics-inspired ideas of racialized fitness and restrictive definitions of citizenship into our contemporary institutions.
Speaker BioAnna Krome-Lukens completed her Ph.D. in U.S. History at UNC-Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on the history of social welfare and public health policies, particularly the history of North Carolina’s eugenics and social welfare programs in the early 20th century. Anna is currently working on a book manuscript entitled Reform and Regeneration: Eugenics and the Welfare State in the South, which demonstrates the lasting influence of eugenics in shaping welfare policies and conceptions of citizenship. She directs UNC’s Public Policy Capstone Program and also teaches first-year courses on higher education and food policy.
GES Colloquium is jointly taught by Drs. Jen Baltzegar and Dawn Rodriguez-Ward, who you may contact with any class-specific questions. The Podcast is produced by Patti Mulligan. Colloquium will be held in person in the 1911 Building, room 129, and live-streamed via Zoom.
Please subscribe to the GES newsletter and LinkedIn for updates.
Genetic Engineering and Society CenterColloquium Home | Zoom Registration | Watch Colloquium Videos | LinkedIn | Newsletter
GES Center at NC State University—Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.
Find out more at https://ges-center-lectures-ncsu.pinecast.co
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Caring for the Enemy, Killing the Ally: The More-than-Human Politics of Transgenic Mosquitoes in Brazil<h4>Luisa Reis-Castro, PhD, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Southern California</h4>
Profile | X | Bluesky | Download Seminar PosterThis talk, based on ethnographic research with scientists and technicians working with transgenic mosquitoes in Brazil, examines the class, gender, and regional issues present in the efforts to transform the mosquito from a “problem” into a “solution.”
AbstractThe Aedes aegypti mosquito, known as the vector for Zika, dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever viruses, has historically been targeted by public health campaigns as an enemy to be eliminated. However, new strategies, such as the transgenic approach, biologically modify the A. aegypti so that they can be deployed to control their own population—here, mosquito breeding and mating are operationalized as an insecticide. In this case, the insect must be simultaneously a friend and an enemy, cared for and killed, and it must establish encounters and nonencounters.Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork at a “biofactory” in the northeast of Brazil dedicated to mass-producing these transgenic mosquitoes, this article investigates the new forms of labor and value produced through these contrasting human-mosquito relations. The author also examines how the project is implemented within the broader geopolitics of experimentation and more-than-human gendered conceptions. Analyzing the multispecies relationships engendered under the premise that it is possible to produce nonencounters, she identifies the historical conditions and promissory claims of transforming the A. aegypti ’s reproductive capacity into labor for killing. Such recasting yields what the author calls the “nonencounter value” within the scientific remaking of mosquitoes, their becoming and being.
Related links:
Luísa Reis-Castro; Becoming Without: Making Transgenic Mosquitoes and Disease Control in Brazil. Environmental Humanities 1 November 2021; 13 (2): 323–347. https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-9320178. PDFVideo: Haedes & Aegypta e a abordagem da Oxitec (Anthropomophized mosquitoes depicting the male as a hero and the female as the villain)Speaker BioDr. Luísa Reis-Castro is an Assistant Professor in Anthropology. Reis-Castro’s research broadly explores the social, cultural, political, and historical dimensions of scientific knowledge about human-animal relations, particularly when harm to humans is involved, as seen with mosquitoes transmitting pathogens. Her first project investigates techno-scientific projects in Brazil that, rather than fight against the Aedes aegypti mosquito, work to harness the insect to tackle the viruses it is known to transmit (Zika, dengue, chikungunya, and yellow fever). By using ethnographic and historical research methods, she explores what these projects can tell us about the geopolitics of knowledge production in an interdependent, unequal world increasingly affected by human activity. She received her PhD from the Program in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
GES Colloquium is jointly taught by Drs. Jen Baltzegar and Dawn Rodriguez-Ward, who you may contact with any class-specific questions. Colloquium will be held in person in the 1911 Building, room 129, and live-streamed via Zoom. Please subscribe to the GES newsletter and LinkedIn for updates.
Genetic Engineering and Society CenterColloquium Home | Zoom Registration | GES Video Library | @GESCenterNCSU | Newsletter
GES Center at NC State University—Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.
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Local seeds and global needs: Ethnobotany, agroecology, and the history of in situ conservation of agrobiodiversity<h4>Helen Anne Curry, PhD, Melvin Kranzberg Professor in the History of Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology</h4>
Website | @TechHSOCThis talk will explore how insights from Indigenous agricultural practices, both past and present, can inform global efforts to conserve diverse crop varieties and bridge the gap between local practices and broader sustainability goals.
<h5>Download seminar poster </h5>AbstractFor decades, diverse disciplines like ethnobotany, agroecology, and agricultural anthropology have strived to understand the agricultural practices of Indigenous peoples. Since the 1980s, this research has frequently been intertwined with conservation efforts. For example, it has promoted local farming methods and tools as ways to maintain biodiverse forests and prevent soil erosion.In this presentation, Dr. Curry digs into the future influence of research on Indigenous agriculture on the preservation of global crop diversity. She examines how social scientists have constructed new narratives about the past and present of Indigenous cultivation. These narratives then inform arguments about the most desirable agricultural futures, both within and beyond Indigenous communities. Typically, these accounts of past and future agriculture have focused on specific crop varieties: locally adapted plants believed to be traditionally cultivated but now endangered by agricultural intensification. Consequently, the research of ethnobotanists and agroecologists has fueled new interest in and approaches to protecting these varieties, ultimately forging a lasting connection between local cultivation practices and global conservation concerns.
Related links:
From Collection to Cultivation: Historical Perspectives on Crop Diversity and Food SecuritySpeaker BioDr. Helen Anne Curry is Melvin Kranzberg Professor in the History of Technology at the School of History and Sociology, Georgia Institute of Technology. She is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, where she leads the multi-researcher project, “From Collection to Cultivation: Historical Perspectives on Crop Diversity and Food Security,” with funding from the Wellcome Trust. Her current research centers on the histories of seeds, crop science, and industrial agriculture. She is the author of Evolution Made to Order: Plant Breeding and Technological Innovation in Twentieth Century America (University of Chicago Press, 2016) and Endangered Maize: Industrial Agriculture and the Crisis of Extinction (University of California Press, 2022).
GES Colloquium is jointly taught by Drs. Jen Baltzegar and Dawn Rodriguez-Ward, who you may contact with any class-specific questions. Colloquium will be held in person in the 1911 Building, room 129, and live-streamed via Zoom.Please subscribe to the GES newsletter and LinkedIn for updates.
Genetic Engineering and Society CenterColloquium Home | Zoom Registration | GES Video Library | @GESCenterNCSU | Newsletter
GES Center at NC State University—Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.
Find out more at https://ges-center-lectures-ncsu.pinecast.co
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Indigenous Perspectives on Synthetic Biology for Conservation<h4>Kirsty Wissing, PhD, Research Fellow, Australian National University | Profile</h4>
A discussion of synthetic biology and Torres Strait Islanders, bringing their perspectives into conversation to explore cultural implications for future island-bound applications of genetic biocontrol technologies, such as gene drives.
<h5>Download seminar poster </h5>AbstractApplied over generations, genetic biocontrol technologies (GBTs), such as gene drives, have the potential to radically reduce a pest population through suppressed breeding. As this technology develops, synthetic biology (synbio) scientists have identified islands as potential environments in which to trial the release of approved gene drives in the future. But what happens when an Indigenous ethical lens is applied to island-bound synbio? The Torres Strait Islands stretch between mainland Australia, of which they are a part, and Papua New Guinea. The Straits’ water facilitates Islanders’ mobility and fosters customary connection and trans/national notions of kin, while also informing engagement with and care for this environment. In this world where water connects, how might Torres Strait Islanders’ understandings complicate and/or contribute to concepts of islands as contained, “watertight” field sites for future GBT trials? And how is a changing climate and rising sea levels impacting Islanders’ environments, identities and, relatedly, an appetite for or apprehension of synbio science? This paper brings synbio science and Torres Strait Islanders’ perspectives into conversation to explore cultural implications for future island-bound applications of GBTs.
Related links:
Wissing, K., & Webb, T. (2023). Kes (Passageway): Cross-Cultural Considerations of Island Field Containment in the Torres Strait. Oceania. PDFOur Knowledge, Our Way (guidelines), CSIROCode of Ethics for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research, The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)Access and benefit-sharing for Australian Synthetic Biologists: Best Practice Guidelines for compliance and risk management, CSIRORelated colloquiums:
Exploring Synergies: Overlapping International Dialogue on Invasive Alien Species Removal on Islands with Synthetic Biology, by Carolina Torres Trueba, Island ConservationFrom containment to connectivity: an oceanic approach to gene drive governance, by Riley Taitingfong, Native Nations Institute, University of ArizonaSpeaker BioDr. Kirsty Wissing is a Research Fellow at the Australian National University and a Visiting Scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia’s national science agency. She has previously been a member of CSIRO’s Synthetic Biology Future Science Platform and CSIRO’s Advanced Engineering Biology Future Science Platform. Trained as an anthropologist (social scientist), Kirsty’s research considers Indigenous and customary values, relationships with and resource responsibility for tangible and intangible environments in Australia and Ghana. Her work sits at the intersection of cross-cultural approaches to environmental disasters such as flooding, invasive species incursions and biodiversity loss. In this presentation, Kirsty seeks to bring scholars and practitioners of synthetic biology into dialogue with Torres Strait Islanders’ perspectives to consider cultural implications for future island-bound applications of genetic biocontrol technologies such as gene drives.__
GES Colloquium is jointly taught by Drs. Jen Baltzegar and Dawn Rodriguez-Ward, who you may contact with any class-specific questions. Colloquium will be held in person in the 1911 Building, room 129, and live-streamed via Zoom. Please subscribe to the GES newsletter and LinkedIn for updates.
Genetic Engineering and Society CenterColloquium Home | Zoom Registration | GES Video Library | @GESCenterNCSU | Newsletter
GES Center at NC State University—Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.
Find out more at https://ges-center-lectures-ncsu.pinecast.co
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Ecological and evolutionary perspectives on genetic engineering<h4>David Andow, PhD, Professor and Department Head, Applied Ecology, NC State University | Profile | @NCStateAEC</h4>
Ecological and evolutionary perspectives have greatly influenced the development of genetic engineering as exemplified by significant events from history.
<h5>Download seminar poster [icon name="download" style="solid" class="" unprefixed_class=""]</h5>AbstractEcological and evolutionary perspectives have greatly influenced the development of genetic engineering throughout its relatively recent history. I will focus my discussion on key events during the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, many of which reverberate today. By 1980, it was clear that commercial applications of genetic engineering would be released into the environment, but it was not clear what organisms would be released. Generic environmental safety arguments flourished, but ecological and evolutionary critiques torpedoed these, and a careful assessment of likely genetically modified organisms (GMOs) prevailed. These resulted in the case-by-case approach to the risks of GMOs that persists today. In the US, it is enshrined in the 1986 Coordinated Framework.
At that time, the focus was on GM microbes, such as ice-minus bacteria and the endophytic bacterium, Clavibacter xyli. Rapid developments in plant transformation, especially maize, completely upended the industry, and in the 1990s, ecological risk assessment shifted accordingly. The exponential increase in the number of releases of GM plants stressed the case-by-case approach, and it was necessary for ecological considerations to address the question of what constitutes a novel case that would require more oversight versus a case similar to one already evaluated. This was also an important contributor to the reopening of non-target evaluations and provided an avenue to implement resistance management in a regulatory context. The 2000s opened with a bang with the Losey, Rayor and Carter 1999 and Quist and Chapela 2001 articles in Nature, which exposed the serious gaps in the ecological risks assessment methods used throughout the world. These gaps present challenges that have yet to be fully resolved today.
Related links:
Regal, P. J. (1986). Models of genetically engineered organisms and their ecological impact. In Ecology of biological invasions of North America and Hawaii (pp. 111-129). New York, NY: Springer New York.Environmental Management, 1986, 10(4), entire issueKrimsky, S., Andow, D.A., Doyle, J., Mellon, M., and C. Nader. 1987. Beyond the technical problems of intentional release. In J.W. Gillett (ed.), Prospects for Physical and Biological Containment of Genetically Engineered Organisms. Ecosystems Research Center, Cornell University, ERC-114, pp. 67-74.Andow, D.A., S.A. Levin, and M.A. Harwell. 1987. Evaluating environmental risks from biotechnology: Contributions of ecology. In J.R. Fowle III, (ed.), Application of Biotechnology: Environmental and Policy Issues (Westview: Boulder, CO), pp. 125-144.Alstad, D.N. and D.A. Andow. 1995. Managing the evolution of insect resistance to transgenic plants. Science 268: 1894-1896.Andow, D.A. and D.N. Alstad. 1998. The F2 screen for rare resistance alleles. Journal of Economic Entomology, 91: 572-578.Losey, J. E., Rayor, L. S., & Carter, M. E. (1999). Transgenic pollen harms monarch larvae. Nature, 399(6733), 214-214.Quist, D., & Chapela, I. H. (2001). Transgenic DNA introgressed into traditional maize landraces in Oaxaca, Mexico. Nature, 414(6863), 541-543.Andow, D.A. and A.R. Ives. 2002. Monitoring and adaptive resistance management. Ecological Applications 12: 1378–1390.Ives, A.R. and D.A. Andow. 2002. Evolution of resistance to Bt crops: Directional selection in structured environments. Ecology Letters 5:792-801.
Haygood, R., A.R. Ives, and D.A. Andow. 2003. Consequences of recurrent gene flow from crops to wild relatives. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B, 270: 1879-1886.
Haygood, R., A. R. Ives and D. A. Andow. 2004. Population genetics of transgene containment. Ecology Letters 7: 213-220.Hilbeck, A. and D.A. Andow (eds). 2004. Environmental Risk Assessment of Transgenic Organisms: A Case Study of Bt Maize in Kenya. CABI: Wallingford, UK. xvii + 281 pp.Andow, D. A. (ed.) 2004. A growing concern: Protecting the food supply in an era of pharmaceutical and industrial crops. Union of Concerned Scientists, Boston, Massachusetts. vi + 125 pp.Hilbeck, A., D.A. Andow and E.M.G. Fontes (eds.). 2006. Environmental Risk Assessment of Genetically Modified Organisms: Methodologies for Assessing Bt Cotton in Brazil. CAB International, Wallingford, UK, xx + 373 pp.Andow, D.A and C. Zwahlen. 2006. Assessing environmental risks of transgenic plants. Ecology Letters 9: 196-214.Andow, D.A., A. Hilbeck and Nguyễn Văn Tuất (eds). 2008. Environmental Risk Assessment of Genetically Modified Organisms: Challenges and Opportunities with Bt Cotton in Viet Nam. CABI Publishing, Wallingford, UK, xx + 360 pp.Lövei, G. L., D. A. Andow and S. Arpaia. 2009. Transgenic insecticidal crops and natural enemies: a detailed review of laboratory studies. Environmental Entomology 38(2): 293-306.Andow, D. A., G. L. Lövei, and S. Arpaia. 2009. Cry toxins and proteinase inhibitors in transgenic plants do have non-zero effects on natural enemies in the laboratory: Rebuttal to Shelton et al., 2009. Environmental Entomology 38: 1528-1532.Andow, D. A. and G. L. Lövei. 2012. Cry toxins in transgenic plants have direct effects on natural enemies in the laboratory. Environmental Entomology 41(5): 1045-47. DOI: doi.org/10.1603/EN11238Speaker BioEcologist David Andow began his new role leading the Department of Applied Ecology in August last year. He served as a Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Department of Entomology at the University of Minnesota for 38 years. His research has focused on insect population and community ecology, ecological risk assessment of invasive species and genetically engineered organisms, insect resistance management, and science policy. He graduated magna cum laude with a BS in Biology from Brown University and a PhD in Ecology from Cornell University before completing a post-doc at the National Institute of Agro-environmental Sciences in Japan. He has had long-standing cooperative research with Embrapa in Brazil, where he was for three years before coming to NC State.
GES Colloquium is jointly taught by Drs. Jen Baltzegar and Dawn Rodriguez-Ward, who you may contact with any class-specific questions. Colloquium will be held in person in the 1911 Building, room 129, and live-streamed via Zoom.
Please subscribe to the GES newsletter and LinkedIn for updates.
Genetic Engineering and Society CenterColloquium Home | Zoom Registration | GES Video Library | @GESCenterNCSU | Newsletter
GES Center at NC State University—Integrating scientific knowledge & diverse public values in shaping the futures of biotechnology.
Find out more at https://ges-center-lectures-ncsu.pinecast.co
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From Plants to People: Mendelian Eugenics in NC in the 20th Century
Grace Wiedrich, CRDM PhD Student, NC State UniversityThe Mendelian eugenics movement in NC provides a useful case study into the lasting impact of over-generalized genetic theory on governments, medical professionals, and activists.
<h5>Download seminar poster </h5>AbstractThe history of eugenics in the United States is deeply entwined with theories about plants and animals arising in the 19th century. By the early 20th century, selective breeding of humans became a popular concern around the country. It was believed that all traits, from hair color to intelligence to morality, were passed on through the blood. However, even after geneticists had proven eugenics to be a pseudoscience by the 1930s, the popular culture of eugenics deeply impacted public policy, education, and activism into the 1970s. North Carolina provides a useful case study into the lasting impact of over-generalized genetic theory on governments, medical professionals, and activists.
Speaker BioGrace Wiedrich is currently a PhD student in Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media and an instructor in the English department at NC State. Her research focuses on eugenics rhetoric during the 20th century in the United States, with a special interest in the interplay among race, gender, and ability.
GES Colloquium is jointly taught by Drs. Jen Baltzegar and Dawn Rodriguez-Ward, who you may contact with any class-specific questions. Colloquium will be held in person in the 1911 Building, room 129, and live-streamed via Zoom.
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Public Engagement: Missing the Mark?<h4>Katie Barnhill, PhD, Senior Research Scholar, GES Center, NC State | Profile | Google Scholar</h4>
Scholars and funders alike have increasingly recognized engagement as an important dimension of innovation, but is engagement accomplishing what we think it is?
<h5>Download seminar poster </h5>AbstractEmerging environmental biotechnologies such as gene drives have often been called for to respond to wicked environmental problems, including applications that have the potential to protect land and water (pesticide reduction), species protection, and human health. As gene drives are advancing at a rapid pace, myriad STS scholars have called for broad and inclusive community, stakeholder, and public engagement practices as a critical part of the epistemic landscape that should shape the innovation of these technologies. But in practice, how have these engagement practices contributed meaningfully to the responsible and just innovation of gene drives, particularly in the context of gene drives for vector control?
Drawing on an analysis of 73 documents related to more than 20 projects, groups, and institutions that have conducted some form of engagement about gene drives for vector control, we demonstrate that the vast majority of engagement activities’ outcomes have minimal measurable impact on gene drive innovation. In fact, most engagement outcomes (1) feed directly into further engagement scholarship and practice or (2) measure and/or encourage community acceptance of the technology. A minority of our findings included outcomes that were intended to shape governance or innovation practices themselves. If engagement practices that are normatively described as relational and co-productive, what do these results say about true politics of involvement in shaping shared futures?
In addition to expanding upon the measured outcomes of these engagement activities, I suggest reasons for why there is such a notable mismatch between what the STS engagement literature calls for and what outcomes are generated from engagement practices. Finally, I offer a potential solution to this mismatch, inviting social scientists and other engagement practitioners to turn the framework of responsible innovation onto ourselves.
Speaker BioDr. Katie Barnhill: Drawing on interdisciplinary fields such as Environmental Science & Policy and Science, Technology, & Society studies, Dr. Barnhill primarily focuses on stakeholder engagement as an important mechanism for the governance of emerging environmental biotechnologies. She has worked on the governance and social science of biotechnology projects that have included applications such as invasive species management, species restoration, sustainable agricultural pest management, and public health. Dr. Barnhill has international research experience, has managed international research teams, and has experience collaborating with Indigenous community leaders in the U.S.
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Final seminar of the fall 2023 semester! Join us again in early January, 2024.
From containment to connectivity: an oceanic approach to gene drive governanceRiley Taitingfong, PhD, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Native Nations Institute, University of ArizonaProfile | LinkedIn | @riley_ilyseAn exploration of the containment paradigm in gene drive research and discourse, drawing on feminist and Indigenous science studies, and proposes a connectivity-based approach to gene drive governance.
<h5>DOWNLOAD SEMINAR POSTER</h5>AbstractDr. Riley Taitingfong explores the widespread proposals for implementing novel genetic engineering technologies, specifically gene drives, on islands. Employing an interdisciplinary approach rooted in Communication Studies, Indigenous studies, and feminist science studies, her inquiry delves into how the scientific and regulatory literature supports the assertion that islands are optimal field trial sites for gene drives. The analysis centers on the activation of containment and confinement as crucial concepts that shape the discourse and material practices surrounding the “safe” development and utilization of gene drive-carrying organisms. This spans from enclosed laboratory tests to open outdoor releases, illustrating the intricate depiction of containment as a process accomplished through material infrastructure and stringent protocols. This portrayal stands in contrast to the depiction of confinement as an intrinsic quality of island geographies. Islands are often depicted as naturally conducive to biosafety, absent the constructed structures found in physical laboratories. She argues that the relatively weak operationalization of confinement in island settings stems from deep-seated associations between island geographies and isolation, rooted in colonial imaginaries that historically justified experimentation on both the geographies and peoples of islands. She further contends that the rhetorical emphasis on safety and security in the literature masks the extent to which proposals advocate for displacing risks onto island geographies. In conclusion, Dr. Taitingtong offers strategies and tools for reimagining gene drive governance through oceanic perspectives, rejecting narrow frameworks of isolation in favor of foregrounding connectivity and relationships as essential elements in the ethical governance of science and technology.
Related links:
Taitingfong, R. I. (2020). Islands as laboratories: indigenous knowledge and gene drives in the Pacific. Human Biology, 91(3), 179-188. PDF (Requires login with Unity ID)Taitingfong, R., & Ullah, A. (2021). Empowering indigenous knowledge in deliberations on gene editing in the wild. Hastings Center Report, 51, S74-S84. PDFNatalie Kofler and Riley Taitingfong. Advances in genetic engineering test democracy’s capacity for good decision-making. The Boston Globe. (2020). PDFSpeaker BioDr. Riley Taitingfong is a Chamoru researcher and educator working on issues of environmental justice, Indigenous self-determination, emerging technologies, and community engagement. She completed her PhD in Communication at the University of California San Diego, where her project focused on Indigenous governance of gene drive technologies. Riley is currently a postdoctoral researcher with the Native Nations Institute at the University of Arizona, where her projects focus on building practical tools for Indigenous Data Sovereignty. When she’s not working, Riley loves to go birding, paddling, and diving.
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American farmers in the Brazilian Cerrado: A comparative ethnography of the soy boomAndrew Ofstehage, Program Coordinator of CALS International Programs at NC State University
Profile | WebsiteA look at the farming strategies of two communities of North American farmers in Brazil and how they make sense of thorny subjects such as farmland financialization, genetically engineered crops, and labor management.
<h5>Download seminar poster</h5>AbstractThis talk focuses on a comparative ethnography of two groups of transnational soybean farmers in the Brazilian Cerrado. In 1968, Holdeman Mennonites embarked on a tour of rural Brazil. In search of autonomy, they found cheap farmland in Rio Verde, Goiás and encountered a government eager for their migration. Decades later, a group of Midwestern family farmers toured rural Brazil and found cheap, expansive farmland. They courted investors (mostly neighboring farmers), bought massive tracts of land, and settled in Luis Eduardo Magalhães, Bahia. The two groups’ migrations began with experiences of crisis: for the Mennonites, a cultural crisis in the United States that threatened their family and community reproduction and for the Midwestern family farmers a farm crisis which threatened their livelihoods. In Brazil, they adopted common farming techniques related to soil fertilization and tillage, yet differed in crop rotations, use of technology, and most starkly in their perceptions of what counted as “good farming.” Each community internally contested identity and value as they made meaning out of transnational lives and industrial farming. Their negotiation of agronomic factors, cultural preferences, and the economics of producing soy in Brazil demonstrates the interconnectivity of social and material factors in agriculture.Related links:
Andrew Ofstehage. (2018), Farming out of place:. American Ethnologist, 45: 317-329. https://doi.org/10.1111/amet.12667Andrew Ofstehage (2016) Farming is easy, becoming Brazilian is hard: North American soy farmers’ social values of production, work and land in Soylandia, The Journal of Peasant Studies, 43:2, 442-460, DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2014.998651Speaker BioDr. Andrew Ofstehage is currently a program coordinator at NC State; previously, he was a postdoctoral associate at Cornell University. He completed his PhD in Anthropology in 2018 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he defended his dissertation, “‘When We Came There Was Nothing’: Land, Work, and Value among Transnational Soybean Farmers in the Brazilian Cerrado.” His research among transnational soybean farmers in Brazil incorporates training in agronomy and anthropology and asks how transnational farmers engage with soils and landscapes in Brazil; become managers of workers and investors; and create and re-create agrarian communities out of place. He is now conducting new research on the bio-cultural life of soy consumption in the United States, planning new work on the socio-material life of soil, and continuing ethnographic research with transnational soy farmers in Brazil.
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Exploring Synergies: Overlapping International Dialogue on Invasive Alien Species Removal on Islands with Synthetic BiologyCarolina Torres Trueba, Lawyer at Island Conservation
Profile | WebsiteSynthetic biology offers new hope for the eradication of invasive alien species from islands, a pressing need in the face of the climate crisis and biodiversity loss.
<h5>Download seminar poster</h5>AbstractThe talk explores the dynamic intersection between international dialogue on synthetic biology (SynBio) and the pressing need for new tools for the removal of invasive alien species (IAS) from islands. It begins by highlighting the vulnerability and ecological importance of the world’s islands, often threatened by the disruptive presence of IAS. Simultaneously, it develops, from a personal and practical perspective, the path of the dialogue of IAS and the interaction with synthetic biology. It also extends on these two issues at the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and how this dialogue shapes the ethical and policy framework for Synbio.This presentation uncovers the fertile common ground where these two spheres converge, translating high-level policy aspirations into tangible, science-based actions. The talk delves into the challenges posed by IAS in island ecosystems and emphasizes the role that synthetic biology can play for the conservation of species and the prevention of extinctions by providing innovative tools for their control and eradication. Through collaborative solutions, the talk concludes by highlighting the potential of synthetic biology for the eradication of invasive exotic species and the need to continue the search for new technologies to solve the pressing problems of the climate crisis and the loss of biodiversity.
Related links:
Island communities threatened by invasive rodents have potential new conservation tool, Island Conservation, Nov. 2022Genetic frontiers for conservation: an assessment of synthetic biology and biodiversity conservation. IUCN Task Force on Synthetic Biology and Biodiversity Conservation, 2019. Download PDFProcess of Elimination, Wired, Feb. 2018Speaker BioCarolina Torres Trueba is an attorney at law, with a minor in litigant, financial and corporate law from Universidad de los Hemisferios. She has over ten years of experience managing environmental cases. In the conservation field, she was the lead attorney for the Galápagos National Park Directorate (GNPD). During her period at the GNPD, she managed environmental issues regarding vessel wrecks on San Cristobal Island as well as environmental cases in the Galápagos. She is a member of the International Trans-disciplinary Academy of Environment (ATINA), and a Kinship Conservation Fellow (2019 cohort). She has been the focal point for international policy matters at the United Nations (UN) and The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) representing IC. She has supported the dialogue on synthetic biology and Gene Drives since 2015.
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PreMiEr ERC Societal, Ethical and Policy Implications of Microbiome Engineering
Jennifer Kuzma, PhD, Co-Director of GES Center, & Associate Director of PreMiEr at NC State | Profile pageDownload seminar poster
AbstractThe engineering of microbiomes in the built environment is a new area of inquiry that comes with many uncertainties and under-explored societal implications. This talk will explore the work of the new NSF-funded Precision Microbiome Engineering Center (PreMiEr) and the exploration of the social, equity, and ethical (SEI) implications.Related links:
PreMiEr project site: https://premier-microbiome.org/PreMiEr SEI homepage: https://go.ncsu.edu/nsf-premierSpeaker BioJennifer Kuzma, PhD, is a Professor in the School of Public and International Affairs, and co-founder and co-director of the Genetic Engineering and Society (GES) Center at NC State University. She also serves as Associate Director and Lead of the Societal and Ethical Implications Core of the new NSF Precision Microbiome Engineering Center.
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Labeling Food Risk and Lifestyle Politics: A Critical History
Xaq Frohlich, PhD, Associate Professor of History at Auburn University
A history of U.S. food labeling policies and “informational turn” in food politics, and a critical look at debates in recent decades over labeling GMOs, “organic”, and other food risks and alternative food movements.
<h5>Download seminar poster </h5>AbstractIn recent decades there has been a proliferation of third-party certification schemes in food markets, which consumers experienced at the supermarket through various new labels for lifestyles: organic, non-GM, dolphin-safe, carbon footprint, fair-trade, and animal-welfare approved, among others. Drawing from my forthcoming book, From Label to Table: Regulating Food in America in the Information Age (UC Press, 2023), this talk gives a history of this “informational turn” in food politics, starting with the U.S. FDA’s turn to nutrition labeling in the 1970s. It then situates debates in the 1990s about GMO labeling and USDA “organic,” debates that continue today, in a larger history of risk labeling and credence goods that illustrates persistent ambivalence among policymakers on the wisdom of using the food label as a tool to “empower” or “nudge” consumers on controversial subjects. While many have heralded informative labels, such as the FDA’s introduction of the Nutrition Facts panel in 1993, as a new form of hands-off, yet pro-public governance that enables healthy choices, I make the case that informative labels are also a problematic market device that unloads responsibility onto consumers, and, as is the case for the recent “bioengineered” foods label, can even work as a technology of obfuscation, rather than transparency. Through a history of the food labels in America, this talk explores the struggles of scientific, legal, and market experts to frame food, diet and risk for the average consumer.
Resource Links
From Label to Table: Regulating Food in America in the Information Age, by Xaq FrohlichDownload flyer for 30% off discount codeSpeaker BioXaq Frohlich is an associate professor of history of technology at Auburn University. He is trained in history and STS, and his research centers on food, diet and health risks, consumer politics, and market governance. His book, From Label to Table: Regulating Food in America in the Information Age (UC Press, 2023), tells a biography of the food label, from the U.S. FDA’s food standards to the use of informative labels (such as Nutrition Facts) today.
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CRISPR/Cas-9-Based Gene Drive To Suppress Agricultural Pests
Amarish Yadav, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow (Max Scott Lab) at NC State | Profile | Google ScholarA discussion about the molecular genetics of homing gene drives disrupting doublesex gene, as well as its potential and challenges in the D. suzukii population control.
<h5>Download seminar poster</h5>AbstractThe CRISPR/Cas9-based homing ‘gene drive’ has emerged as a revolutionary genetic-based method that holds great promise for control of insect pests. Insect pests pose a significant risk to global crop loss, food security, and public health. In recent years, considerable progress has been made in the field of modern gene-drive which advances our understanding of its genetic and molecular mechanisms, biocontainment strategies, potential risks, and challenges. Using the genome-editing tool CRISPR/Cas9, Amarish has successfully developed and evaluated a split (biosafe) homing gene-drive which disrupts doublesex gene for the population control of an agricultural pest, Drosophila suzukii. The initial homing gene drive strains he made showed dominant female sterility and biased inheritance of up to 70%. The drive construct was modified such that females were dominant fertile (recessive sterile) and the Cas9 construct re-engineered using D. suzukii components. The final split-homing gene-drive strains showed 94-99% biased inheritance of the engineered genetic element and recessive female sterility.In his talk, Amarish will discuss the molecular genetics of the homing gene drives disrupting doublesex gene, as well as its potential and challenges in the D. suzukii population suppression.Related links:
Yadav, A. K., Butler, C., Yamamoto, A., Patil, A. A., Lloyd, A. L., & Scott, M. J. (2023). CRISPR/Cas9-based split homing gene drive targeting doublesex for population suppression of the global fruit pest Drosophila suzukii. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(25), e2301525120. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2301525120. PDF (requires Unity ID)Download PowerPoint slide deckSpeaker BioDr. Amarish Yadav is a postdoctoral research scholar in Prof. Max Scott’s laboratory at NC State University, where he has been working on the development of genetic-based pest control methods such as homing gene drives and evaluating safeguards in the agricultural pest spotted wing drosophila (Drosophila suzukii). His doctoral research at Banaras Hindu University in India was to investigate the genetic and molecular aspects of cancer progression linked to the loss of cell-polarity regulators function in Drosophila melanogaster. During his postdoctoral research at NC State, using CRISPR/Cas9 technology, he developed the first split homing gene drive in spotted wing drosophila which targets doublesex, a gene essential for female fly development. In addition, he has generated various transgenics and eye-color mutants to be useful in the D. suzukii genetics research. Amarish is currently assessing the population-suppression potential of gene drive strains at laboratory scale as well as the influence of different genetic backgrounds on the gene drive efficiency in this pest.
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Does High School Genetics Education Communicate an Essentialist Construal of Gender?Brian Donovan, PhD, Senior Research Scientist, BSCS Science Learning
Profile | Website | Related GGA SeminarEvidence suggests that high school biology textbooks in the US may reinforce an essentialist construal of gender.
<h5>Download seminar poster </h5>Special two-day engagement with the Genetics & Genomics Academy, sponsored by the College of Education and the Kenan Fellows Program for Teacher Leadership
AbstractEssentialism is the lay assumption that categories of living things have underlying, unobservable “essences.” When applied to gender, this assumption has a range of negative consequences, including stereotyping and discrimination. In this talk, Dr. Brian Donovan will present evidence from a content analysis and a randomized control trial to suggest that high school biology textbooks in the US communicate an essentialist construal of sex and gender to students and that students grow in their gender essentialist thinking after reading such texts. Dr. Donovan will argue that rather than conveying accurate knowledge about the biological and social complexity of sex and gender, biology education in the US seems to instead promote messages consistent with gender essentialism.Related links:
Humane Genetics, BCBS Science LearningDonovan, B. M., Weindling, M., Lee, D. (2020). From Basic to Humane Genomics Literacy: How Different Types of Genetics Curricula Could Influence Anti-Essentialist Understandings of Race. Science & Education. PDFSpeaker BioBrian M. Donovan is a senior research scientist at BSCS Science Learning, which is the oldest science education organization in the United States. He holds a B.A. in biology from Colorado College, a M.A. in teaching from the University of San Francisco, and a M.S. in biology and Ph.D. in science education from Stanford University. His research explores how genetics education interacts with social-cognitive biases to influence how students make sense of complex biological and social phenomena. By translating this research into frameworks that inform curriculum, instruction, and teacher education, Brian hopes to create a generation of researchers, teachers, and curriculum writers who know how to teach about human difference in a more humane manner. Brian’s award-winning educational research (e.g, The 2020 National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) Early Career Research Award, The 2017 & 2022 Research Worth Reading Awards from NARST) has been reported on in the United States (e.g., The New York Times, The Atlantic/Undark, & EdWeek) and abroad (e.g., BBC Radio, The Independent, & The Australian Broadcasting System). Currently, he is the principal investigator of four different NSF-funded research projects that explore the cognitive, social, and educational factors that link the learning of human genetics to reductions in racism, sexism, and deterministic worldviews that limit human potential. Before his research career in science education, Brian taught middle school science for seven years in San Francisco.
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BioNFTs: Verifiable Biosamples & BioData for training Ethical AI Models in Life Sciences
Daniel Uribe, MBA, Co-Founder & CEO at GenoBank.io | @duribebDiscover how BioNFTs are revolutionizing the Life Sciences by providing verifiable biosamples and biodata for training ethical AI models
<h5>Download seminar poster </h5>AbstractIn a rapidly evolving digital landscape, the convergence of blockchain technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is heralding unprecedented opportunities and challenges in Life Sciences. One of the most pressing issues we face is the ethical use of biosamples and biodata in AI model training. This talk introduces the groundbreaking concept of BioNFTs (Biological Non-Fungible Tokens), a solution designed to ensure data provenance, integrity, and ethical compliance.BioNFTs serve as a decentralized verification mechanism, allowing researchers, biobanks, and other stakeholders to authenticate the origins, chain of custody, and consent associated with biosamples and their corresponding biodata. These tokens operate on blockchain technology, providing a tamper-proof, transparent record of interactions.
The utilization of BioNFTs in AI model training fundamentally shifts the paradigm. By ensuring the ethical sourcing and utilization of biosamples and biodata, we can instill trust among the community and participants, thereby accelerating the adoption of AI in life sciences applications ranging from drug discovery to personalized medicine. This is especially critical when the biodata under study are derived from sensitive populations or rare conditions, where misuse or misrepresentation can have significant ethical implications.
Moreover, BioNFTs can be a game-changer for compliance with evolving global regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA, offering a novel way to provide proof of data provenance and informed consent. They also pave the way for a new economy, where individuals could monetize their anonymized data by granting time-bound access to researchers via tokenized consent.The talk will delve into real-world applications, potential pitfalls, and the roadmap ahead for integrating BioNFTs into our AI-driven future in life sciences. This concept has already been peer-reviewed by the British Blockchain Association based on the article “Privacy Laws, Genomics Data and NFTs“. Join us as we explore how BioNFTs can be the cornerstone for establishing ethical AI models in Life Sciences.
Resource Links:
Daniel Uribe (2020) Privacy Laws, Non-Fungible Tokens, and Genomics. Conference: 2nd International Science Conference 2020At: Edinburgh, Scotland, March 2020. Online at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341463779_Privacy_Laws_Non-Fungible_Tokens_and_Genomics. PDFDemo video: Decentralized Biospecimen governance using BioNFTs™ (by GenoBank.io)Speaker BioDaniel Uribe: With over six years of experience as co-founder and CEO of GenoBank.io, I am passionate about leveraging blockchain and genomics to enable users to establish ownership and control of their genomic datasets using BioNFTs (ERC721). My core competencies include creating and executing the vision, strategy, and business model of GenoBank.io, leading a multidisciplinary team of experts and advisors, and partnering with academic, industry, and government stakeholders to advance the field of personal genomics and data privacy.I have a strong background in data science, artificial intelligence, and bioinformatics, as well as certifications in Ethereum Solidity Dapp, eQTL Functional Genetics, and RNA-seq Workshop. I also hold an MBA from IPADE Business School and a certificate in Data: Law, Policy and Regulation from The London School of Economics and Political Science.
My mission is to empower individuals to access, share, and monetize their genomic data in a secure, transparent, and ethical way, while contributing to the scientific and social good. I believe that BioNFTs are the future of personal genomics and data sovereignty, and I am excited to be at the forefront of this innovative and disruptive field.
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Exploring Policy and Regulation of Emerging Biotechnologies For Use In Controlling Pest Populations
Amanda Pierce, Senior Advisor at US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
AbstractThe U.S. Coordinated Framework for the Regulation of Biotechnology describes the comprehensive federal regulatory policy for ensuring the safety of biotechnology products with the goal of protecting health and the environment without impeding innovation. Under the framework, EPA, FDA, and USDA aim to cover the full range of plants, animals and microorganisms derived from biotechnology in an integrated and coordinated manner. The Office of Pesticide Programs in EPA is responsible for evaluating and ensuring the safety of novel applications of recent discoveries in genetics, molecular biology and other biological disciplines when applied to real world pest control problems – e.g., genetically engineered animals for pest population control and plant-incorporated protectants. In this colloquium, I will explain EPA’s role in the regulation of biotechnology and discuss the development of policies and regulations for emerging technologies.
Speaker BioAmanda Pierce is a Senior Advisor in the Emerging Technologies Branch in the Office of Pesticide Programs at EPA where she focuses on advancing ecological risk assessment and policy initiatives for cutting edge biotechnologies within the United States government and internationally. She received her Ph.D. in Population Biology, Ecology and Evolution from Emory University. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill, Amanda became a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow at EPA where she applied her population genetics expertise to developing risk assessment frameworks for emerging technologies.
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