idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
The publication of two papers reporting the engineering of highly pathogenic avian H5N1 influenza A viruses that can be efficiently transmitted by respiratory droplets resulted in a heated debate about the risks and benefits of conducting and publishing such forced evolution research. The work is referred to as on gain of function (GOF) research, or Dual Use Research of Concern (DURC). Dual Use Research of Concern (DURC) with microbes raises special issues concerning biosafety, biosecurity, and potential limits to the freedom of research. How should we balance the freedom of the individual scientist, the interest in unlimited communication of research results, and the interest of society not to be exposed to avoidable or potentially uncontrollable risks?
Different governmental and institutional regulations or codes, both national and international, provide frameworks and guidance that in most cases were developed in response to particular discoveries. The rapid development of biomedical research including genome editing and synthetic biology creates the need for a broader agreement on potential limits to certain experiments that can lead to harm. New international codes and regulations need to be discussed and adapted in an open exchange between scientists, governmental and research institutions as well as representatives of scientific societies and public stakeholders.
The goal of the Symposium "Dual Use Research on Microbes: Biosafety, Biosecurity, Responsibility" will be to discuss different approaches and perspectives to regulate Dual Use Research of Concern focusing on the pressing issue of lab made microbes.
Confirmed speakers
Christian Bréchot, President, Institute Pasteur, Paris
Hans Clevers, President KNAW, University of Utrecht
Veronique Kiermer, Nature
Peter Clevestig, Senior Researcher, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Stockholm
Jeremy Farrar, Director, Wellcome Trust
Harvey Fineberg, President, Institute of Medicine, Washington
Ron Fouchier, Erasmus University, Rotterdam
Yoshihiro Kawaoka, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Adel Mahmoud, Princeton University
Marc Lipsitch, Director, Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics, Harvard Medical School, Boston
Peter Palese, Chair of the Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York
David Relman, Standford University
Lars Schaade, Vice President, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin
Ulrich Sieber, Director, Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Criminal Law, Freiburg
Michael Specter, Staff Writer, The New Yorker, New York City
Volker Stollorz, Science Journalist, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Cologne
Silja Vöneky, (Co-)Director, Institute for Public Law, University of Freiburg
Simon Wain Hobson, Head of Molecular Retrovirology Unit, Virology Department, Institute Pasteur, Paris
Rüdiger Wolfrum, Emeritus Scientific Member, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg
Raymond Zilinskas, Monterey Institute of International Studies
Information on participating / attending:
There is no registration fee, but registering is necessary.
Please register online on https://veranstaltungen.volkswagenstiftung.de/
Date:
12/10/2014 12:00 - 12/12/2014 13:00
Registration deadline:
11/26/2014
Event venue:
Tagungszentrum Schloss Herrenhausen
Auditorium
30419 Hannover
Niedersachsen
Germany
Target group:
Journalists, Scientists and scholars
Email address:
Relevance:
international
Subject areas:
Biology, Law, Medicine, Social studies, Zoology / agricultural and forest sciences
Types of events:
Conference / symposium / (annual) conference
Entry:
07/08/2014
Sender/author:
Anna Böhning
Department:
Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
Event is free:
yes
Language of the text:
English
URL of this event: http://idw-online.de/en/event47782
You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.
You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).
Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.
You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).
If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).
