 Symposium to explore stem cell promise, perils
More than a year ago, Californians passed Proposition 71, giving stem cell proponents a solid vote of confidence — and scientists $3 billion for research — in the hope that this experimental therapy might close in on cures for ailments ranging from Alzheimer’s to heart disease.
But what are the legal challenges that are holding up state funding? If research does prove fruitful, who will receive these promised therapies, and on what basis? And what are the implications of scientists’ increasing power to manipulate the primordial cells from which life emerges?
To deepen the public’s understanding of stem cell research, its contexts and implications, UCLA’s Center for Society and Genetics, in conjunction with the UCLA Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine and the School of Law, will present a free public symposium on Feb. 5 at Covel Commons, exploring such provocative questions and many others.
Experts from across the campus, including faculty from the UCLA College, the UCLA Anderson School of Management and the schools of Dentistry and Public Affairs, will participate in the event, along with Chancellor Albert Carnesale.
“Stem Cells: Promise and Peril in Regenerative Medicine” will attract scholars from law, bioethics, public health, the media, medicine, public policy and sociology. The topics they’ll address include embryo ethics, markets for human tissue, the consumer’s role in science policy and the potential pitfalls surrounding stem cell research.
Speakers will include the director of the UCLA Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Research Owen Witte; NPR’s Joe Palca; Mildred Cho of Stanford University’s Center for Biomedical Ethics; Sherry Lansing, a member of the Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee and a UC regent; Stephen Munzer and Russell Korobkin from the UCLA School of Law; and Michael Darby, the Warren C. Cordner Chair in Money and Financial Markets at the Anderson School.
The symposium will run from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information, visit www.socgen.ucla.edu.
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