Program
Wednesday, May 21
16:00 Welcome and Introduction
Summit introduction: overview and key aims.
Sheila Jasanoff (Harvard Kennedy School), Benjamin Hurlbut (Arizona State University), Krishanu Saha (University of Wisconsin)
16:30 The Choreography of CRISPR - View Trailer
Performers: Pigeonwing Dance Company
17:00 Opening Panel: Twists and Turns in Decoding Life
Ten years into the CRISPR era and 50 years since Asilomar, what progress has been made—in biology, law, policy, politics, religion, and ethics—to govern our growing technical ability to control the building blocks of human heredity and life? What further work most urgently needs to be done?
Moderator: Sheila Jasanoff (Harvard Kennedy School)
Confirmed Speakers: Françoise Baylis (Dalhousie University), George Church (Harvard Medical School), Patricia Williams (Northeastern University)
18:30 Reception
20:00 Adjourn
Thursday, May 22
9:00 Framing Visions
Summit mission and objectives.
Benjamin Hurlbut (Arizona State University), Sheila Jasanoff (Harvard Kennedy School), Jacob Moses (University of Texas Medical Branch), Krishanu Saha (University of Wisconsin)
9:30 Panel 1: Health in the CRISPR Era
How is the capacity to genetically edit bodies or make heritable changes changing our conceptions of health and disease? Do these changes create new tensions between individual and population health? Between therapy and enhancement? Do they adequately grapple with genetic diversity and global economic inequality?
Moderator: Benjamin Hurlbut (Arizona State University)
Confirmed Speakers: Vijay Chandru (National Centre for Biological Sciences, India), Victor Dzau (National Academy of Medicine), Rosemarie Garland-Thomson (Emory University), Fyodor Urnov (University of California, Berkeley), Keith Wailoo (Princeton University)
10:45 Coffee
11:00 Panel 2: Limits of Engineering
The CRISPR era has brought new abilities—and ambitions—to engineer life. Biotechnologies enable the construction of human embryo-like entities, human-animal chimeras, and other artificial entities that resemble features of biological humanness. As technical barriers are broken, what ethical limits are needed, and how do we find them? What do these powerful techniques mean for academic freedom and responsibility, commercial applications, justice and social progress?
Moderator: Krishanu Saha (University of Wisconsin)
Confirmed Speakers: Amy Hinterberger (University of Washington), Robin Lovell-Badge (Francis Crick Institute), O. Carter Snead (University of Notre Dame), Carrie Wolinetz (Lewis-Burke Associates), Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz (California Institute of Technology)
12:15 Lunch
13:45 Panel 3: Biocapital and the Conditions of Innovation
Are intellectual property and capital steering genome editing and related biotechnology innovations toward serving the public good? What opportunities or challenges do concentrations of capital or proprietary control pose for innovation and the distribution of its risks and benefits? Should there be limits to commodification—of techniques, of products, of human and non-human life—and who should set them?
Moderator: Kaushik Sunder Rajan (University of Chicago)
Confirmed Speakers: Shai Lavi (Tel-Aviv University), Kiran Musunuru (University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine), Tay Salimullah (4BIO Capital), Tania Simoncelli (Chan Zuckerberg Initiative), Erik Sontheimer (University of Massachusetts Medical School)
15:00 Coffee
15:30 Keynote Panel: Cosmopolitan Bioethics
Modern biotechnologies are poised to alter what it means to be human. In deliberating on how to govern these technologies, how can we foster a “cosmopolitan ethics”: one that affirms diversity, aspires to mutual understanding, is committed to deep, sustained, inclusive engagement with matters of collective moral concern, and favors a posture of humility? What are the impediments and frictions?
Moderator: Sheila Jasanoff (Harvard Kennedy School)
Confirmed Speakers: George Daley (Harvard Medical School), Alondra Nelson (Institute for Advanced Study), Vardit Ravitsky (Hastings Center)
16:45 Panel 4: Public Imaginations of Public Goods
Governance of genome editing has become more inclusive in some respects, but significant asymmetries remain: between North and South, between researchers and patients, and between scientific agendas and societies’ needs. What conceptions dominate and which ideas tend to be excluded? What reforms are needed to make space for alternative visions of technological innovation and the public good?
Moderator: Jacob Moses (University of Texas Medical Branch)
Confirmed Speakers: Kevin Esvelt (MIT), Katie Hasson (Center for Genetics and Society), Sarojini Nadimpally (SAMA Resource Group for Women and Health), Jahnavi Phalkey (Science Gallery Bengaluru), Durhane Wong-Rieger (Canadian Organization for Rare Disorders)
18:00 Adjourn
Friday, May 23
9:00 Recap: Looking Back, Ahead
Benjamin Hurlbut (Arizona State University), Sheila Jasanoff (Harvard Kennedy School), Jacob Moses (University of Texas Medical Branch), Krishanu Saha (University of Wisconsin)
9:30 Panel 5: Sources of Moral Authority: Science, Religion, Law, Medicine
Genome editing and related biotechnologies run up against questions of human integrity, meaning and purpose that science alone cannot address. How should science and technology productively converse with other sources of moral authority, including religion, law, ethics, and medical practice? What are the greatest frictions or barriers?
Moderator: O. Carter Snead (University of Notre Dame)
Confirmed Speakers: Arnold Eisen (Jewish Theological Seminary), Jacob Hanna (Weizmann Institute of Science), Jennifer Herdt (Yale Divinity School), James Keenan (Boston College)
10:45 Coffee
11:00 Panel 6: Modalities of Governance, from the Asilomar Conference to CRISPR Summits
Many mechanisms and institutions have sought to guide the responsible development of genome editing: ethics committees, scientific journals, public consultation, citizens juries, and international summits. How should we assess the successes and failures of these models, especially with respect to making norms that are likely to affect all of humanity? What structures, practices, and assumptions constrain participation and/or inhibit improvements in governance?
Moderator: Peter Mills (PHG Foundation)
Confirmed Speakers: Philip Campbell (University of Cambridge), Roli Mathur (Indian Council of Medical Research), Daniel Wikler (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health), Carrie Wolinetz (Lewis-Burke Associates)
12:15 Lunch
13:45 Panel 7: Globalization and Its Frictions
If the human genome is “the common heritage of humankind,” then governance must be a global responsibility. How should global governance institutions assert authority over life sciences and technologies that reach into matters as intimate and personal as health and reproduction? What are the primary responsibilities and limits of global governance institutions?
Moderator: Françoise Baylis (Dalhousie University)
Confirmed Speakers: Jane Qiu (Independent Journalist), Siobhan O’Sullivan (Royal Irish Academy), Christiane Woopen (Bonn University), David Winickoff (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development)
15:00 Panel 8: Alternative Futures: Reorientation and Renewal
Biotechnology promises to reduce disease, liberate humans from disability, and build more sustainable ecosystems. Unwisely used or left ungoverned, biotechnology can also degrade human lives by reducing diversity, impeding innovation, and centralizing control. How should we reimagine futures in which biotechnology better serves societal visions of the good?
Moderator: Sheila Jasanoff (Harvard Kennedy School)
Confirmed Speakers: Douglas Kysar (Yale Law School), Laurence Lwoff (Council of Europe), O. Carter Snead (University of Notre Dame), Kaushik Sunder Rajan (University of Chicago)
16:15 Coffee
16:45 Conference Statement and Roundtable
17:45 Closing Comment
Speakers: Benjamin Hurlbut (Arizona State University), Sheila Jasanoff (Harvard Kennedy School), Jacob Moses (University of Texas, Medical Branch), Krishanu Saha (University of Wisconsin)
18:00 Reception
19:30 Adjourn