| Workshop: Stem Cell Research |
| In the 2004 general election, California voters passed proposition 71, granting $3 billion in funds for stem cell research. What are the implications for the local San Diego as well as the national research environment? How will the money be managed? What monitoring procedures will be in place to supervise the research? These questions and more will be in discussion in this workshop. |
| Panelists |
| Susan Bryant |
| Mary Devereaux |
| Ajit Varki |
| Richard Murphy |
| Susan
Bryant
spent her childhood in Yorkshire, UK. She became interested in biology at
a girls-only high school, obtained her undergraduate degree at King’s
College London and her Ph.D. degree at St. Mary’s Hospital Medical
School, University of London. She moved to the US to study regeneration
as a postdoctoral fellow at Case Western Reserve University, and was recruited
as the first woman on the faculty in Biology at the University of California,
Irvine a few years after the campus opened, in the late sixties. She has
been an influential developmental biologist, and she established regeneration
as a model system for pattern formation. Her research provided evidence
for a unified model for pattern formation, demonstrated the universality
of regulative mechanisms among diverse animals, predicted the conservation
of developmental pathways, and pioneered the development of molecular techniques
for studying regenerating systems. With her collaborators, she has delineated
the core principles of regeneration, and has published over 100 papers in
her field. She has served on several national committees, including Advisory
Boards for the VA Office of Regeneration Programs, and for the Indiana University
Axolotl Colony. She also serves on the Editorial Boards of several journals
in her field. In 2001 she was elected a Fellow of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science. Along the way, she has held several leadership
positions, including Program Director at NSF, Assistant Vice Chancellor
for Plans and Programs and Department Chair at UCI, and culminating in being
appointed Dean of the School of Biological Sciences at UCI in 2000, the
beginning of a period of explosive growth. Her goal as Dean is to ensure
that the School is a major participant in the discoveries that are fueling
the revolution in biology, and at the same time to work for the full participation
of women and minorities in the scientific enterprise. She has been concerned
about this issue for many years, and in 1987 was awarded one of the first
UCI Pacesetter Awards for contributions to women at UCI. As dean, she competed
successfully in 2001 for a large institutional NSF grant to address gender
equity on the faculty, the Advance Program for Institutional Transformation,
the only award to a California university. She has also participated as
a co-PI of an MSP grant from NSF to partner with three nearby school districts
to improve student performance and interest in mathematics and science.
In 2005, she was elected a Fellow, the highest honor bestowed, by the Association
of Women in Science.
She is married to David Gardiner, her partner in research
and life for more than two decades. Susan and David have three children.
Michael 21, an Engineering major at UCLA; Sara 18, a freshman at Hamilton
College, NY. David's son Drew, 27 is a lawyer in San Diego. |
Mary
Devereaux holds a Ph.D. in philosophy. A specialist in bioethics
and aesthetics, she is a member of the Research Ethics Program at UCSD
and a faculty associate at the Center for Ethics in Science and Technology.
She is Director of the Biomedical Ethics Seminar, a monthly meeting of
research scientists, medical clinicians, philosophers and administrators
to discuss issues such as medical futility, human subjects research, stem
cell research, etc., and Tough Cases, an ethics program for medical students
and graduate students in the sciences. Professor Devereaux’s current
research focuses on issues of medical enhancement such as cosmetic surgery,
gene therapy, and psychopharmacology and how increasing patient demands
for these services affect the definition and professional norms of medicine.
She also lectures widely to academic, business and community groups on
stem cell ethics. Prof. Devereaux serves on the Human Subjects Committee
IRB at The Burnham Institute, La Jolla, CA and belongs to The American
Philosophical Association, the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities,
The Association for Women in Science, and the American Society for Aesthetics.
|
| Dr.
Ajit Varki received basic training in Physiology, Medicine, Biology,
and Biochemistry at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, The University
of Nebraska, and Washington University in St. Louis. He also has formal
training and board certification in internal medicine, hematology, and oncology.
He is currently Professor of Medicine and Cellular & Molecular Medicine,
Co-Director of the Glycobiology Research and Training Center, and Associate
Dean for Physician Scientist Training at UCSD. Dr. Varki is Executive Director
of the textbook "Essentials of Glycobiology" and serves on the
editorial boards of the several journals, including The Journal of Clinical
Investigation, PloS Medicine, and Glycobiology. He also serves as Coordinator
for the multidisciplinary UCSD Project for Explaining the Origin of Humans
and is an Affiliate Faculty Member of the Living Links Center of Emory University.
Dr. Varki is recipient of a MERIT award from the NIH, and an American Cancer Society Faculty Research Award, and serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of PubMed Central (NLM/NIH), the Human Gene Nomenclature Committee, and the Huntsman Cancer Institute (University of Utah). Significant past appointments include: Co-Head, UCSD Division of Hematology-Oncology (1987-89); President of the Society for Glycobiology (1996); Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Investigation (1992-97); the Interim Directorship of the UCSD Cancer Center (1996-1997); President of the American Society for Clinical Investigation (1998-1999); Scientific Advisor, Complex Carbohydrate Research Center (University of Georgia), and Scientific Advisor, the Yerkes Primate Center (Emory University). Dr. Varki’s research interests are currently focused on a family of sugars called the Sialic Acids, and their roles in biology, evolution and disease. The surfaces of all cells in all organisms are decorated with a dense and complex array of sugar chains. These "glycans" are known to mediate or modulate many biological processes including sub-cellular and cellular trafficking, intercellular adhesion, signaling, and microbial attachment. Much data also indicates their involvement in embryonic development, normal tissue organization, tumor metastasis, and in the interactions of cells with extra-cellular molecules. In recent years, improved technologies have permitted exploration of this new frontier of "Molecular Glycobiology". The Varki lab (directed by Ajit and Nissi Varki) use these new approaches, along with the traditional tools of molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics and genomics to investigate selected areas of Glycobiology. The present focus is on the Sialic Acids, which are found at the outermost position on the glycan chains of all vertebrate cell surfaces and glycoproteins. Currently active projects are relevant to the roles of Sialic Acids in Viral and Bacterial Infectivity; the Regulation of the Immune Response; the Progression and Spread of Tumors; and Unique Aspects of Human Evolution. Dr.
Varki is particularly intrigued by finding multiple differences in Sialic
Acid biology between humans and our closest evolutionary cousins, the
great apes. These differences are a signature of the events that occurred
during the last few million years of human evolution, and may be relevant
to understanding several aspects of the current human condition, both
in health and disease. These specific research directions have also lead
Dr. Varki to a broader interest in explaining the origins and workings
of the human phenomenon. |
| Richard
A. Murphy became president and chief executive officer of the Salk
Institute in October 2000. Prior to heading the Salk, for eight years he
directed the Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI), a teaching and research
institute of McGill University, where he was also professor of neurology
and neurosurgery.
Dr. Murphy began his academic career at the Harvard University
Medical School following postdoctoral studies at Massachusetts General
Hospital. A member of Harvard’s Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy
from 1976 through 1986, he won numerous teaching awards and conducted
an active research program in neurotrophins, He left Harvard in 1986 to chair the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Canada’s University of Alberta. While continuing his own research, he restructured that department and amassed a record of achievement that led to his appointment as MNI director. At the Salk Institute, Dr. Murphy has worked with faculty and trustees to develop a strategic plan shaping the Institute’s future scientific direction. Central to that plan is to broaden the Institute’s current strengths through the hiring of a new generation of Salk scientists. Another priority has been to increase and enhance membership of the Salk’s board of trustees to reflect the Institute’s local, national, and international constituencies. Dr.
Richard Murphy, chief executive officer of the Salk Institute for Biological
Studies, was named to the independent Citizen's Oversight Committee overseeing
the implementation of Proposition 71 in November 2004. |