Lori Gruen, associate professor of philosophy, associate professor of feminist, gender and sexuality studies, speaks during a symposium titled "Stem Cells into the Clinic: Biological, Ethical and Regulatory Concerns," Jan. 28 in the Goldsmith Family Cinema. The event was sponsored by the Dachs Chair, the Faust Lectures in Ethics, and the Ethics in Society Project.Keynote speaker Bonnie Steinbock, professor of bioethics at the Union Graduate College-Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and professor of philosophy at the University of Albany spoke on “The Ethics of Stem Cell Policy." Her research focuses on the ethics of reproduction and genetics.Stephen Latham, deputy director of Yale University's Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, and Laura Grabel, the Lauren B. Dachs Professor of Science and Society, professor of biology, joined Gruen and Steinbock in a panel discussion of "Stem Cell Research in the Obama Era."Dr. Irving Weissman, professor of pathology and developmental biology at the Stanford School of Medicine and director of the Stanford Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, spoke on “Normal and Neoplastic Stem Cells. Weissman’s research focuses on hematopoietic stem cell biology. Other speakers at the symposium included Gordon Carmichael, professor of genetics and developmental biology at the University of Connecticut Health Center, and Valerie Horsley, assistant professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at Yale University. Carmichael, who spoke on “Double Stranded and Noncoding RNAs in Human Embryonic Stem Cells” studies molecular signals which control the expression and function of mRNA molecules. Horsley, who spoke on “Intrinsic and Extrinsic Control of Skin Stem Cells," studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms that control stem cell activity and function within epithelia, the tissues that line internal organs and outer surfaces. (Photos by Olivia Bartlett Drake)
Olivia Drake
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