Category Archives: Human Genetic Engineering

MEDIA CONTACT

Available for logged-in reporters only

New Clues as to Why Mutations in the MYH9 Gene Cause Broad Spectrum of Disorders in Humans

Researchers use in vivo imaging to watch how cells move and generate forces inside living tissues, study sheds new light on how motor proteins generate forces inside living tissues and how genetic factors alter these forces to result in disease

Newswise New York, NYOctober 28, 2019Myosins are motor proteins that convert chemical energy into mechanical work, generating force and movement. Myosin II generates forces that are essential to drive cell movements and cell shape changes that generate tissue structure. While researchers know that mutations in the genes that encode nonmuscle myosin II lead to diseases, including severe congenital defects as well as blood platelet dysfunction, nephritis, and deafness in adults, they do not fully understand the mechanisms that translate altered myosin activity into specific changes in tissue organization and physiology.

A team of researchers led by Karen Kasza, Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, used the Drosophila embryo to model human disease mutations that affect myosin motor activity. Through in vivo imaging and biophysical analysis, they demonstrated that engineering human MYH9-related disease mutations into Drosophila myosin II produces motors with altered organization and dynamics that fail to drive rapid cell movements, resulting in defects in epithelial morphogenesis. The studythe first to demonstrate that these mutations result in slower cell movements in vivowas published October 15, 2019, by PNAS.

Its not currently possible to watch what happens at the cell level when these genes are mutated in humans, and its still really difficult to do this in mammalian model organisms like mice, says Kasza, the studys lead author who began the research as a postdoctoral fellow at the Sloan Kettering Institute and continued it when she joined Columbia Engineering in 2016.

Because there are so many similarities between the myosin II protein in humans and in fruit flies, Kaszas approach was to start by tackling how to watch the effects of myosin II mutations in fruit flies. Her group engineered the human disease mutations into fruit fly myosin and then observed how this affected the behaviors of the proteins, cells, and tissues in the organism.

They used high-resolution confocal fluorescence imaging to take movies of the process, together with biophysical approaches such as laser ablation, or laser nano-dissection, to measure the forces generated by the mutated myosin II motor proteins in vivo.

Kasza found that, while the mutated myosin II motor proteins actually went to the proper places inside cells and were able to generate force, the fine-scale organization of the myosin proteins and the speed of their movement inside cells were different than for the normal wild-type myosin protein. The team saw slower movements of cells within tissues that brought about abnormalities in embryo shape during development.

By watching how cells move and generate forces inside living tissues, weve uncovered new clues as to why mutations in theMYH9gene cause a broad spectrum of disorders in humans. Kasza observes. Our work sheds new light on how motor proteins generate forces inside living tissues and on how genetic factors alterthese forces to result in disease. This mechanistic understanding will help us better understand these diseases and could lead to new diagnostic or therapeutic strategies down the road.

The researchers are now working on new approaches to very precisely manipulate the forces generated by myosin motors inside living cells and tissues. These new tools will help the team to uncover how mechanical forces influence biochemical processes that control cell movements and cell fate. These studies will be essential to better understanding how dysregulation of mechanical forces contributes to disease.

About the Study

The study is titled Cellular defects resulting from disease-related myosin II mutations in Drosophila.

Authors are: Karen E. Kasza1,2,; Sara Supriyatno1; and Jennifer A. Zallen1.1Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute;2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Columbia Engineering.

The study was supported by NIH/NIGMS R01 grant GM102803 to JAZ. KEK holds a Career Award at the Scientific Interface from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, a Clare Boothe Luce Professorship, and a Packard Fellowship.JAZ is an investigator of the HowardHughes Medical Institute.

The authors declare no financial or other conflicts of interest.

###

LINKS:

Paper: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1909227116 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1909227116https://www.pnas.org/http://engineering.columbia.edu/https://engineering.columbia.edu/faculty/karen-kaszahttps://me.columbia.edu/

###

Columbia EngineeringColumbia Engineering, based in New York City, is one of the top engineering schools in the U.S. and one of the oldest in the nation. Also known as The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School expands knowledge and advances technology through the pioneering research of its more than 220 faculty, while educating undergraduate and graduate students in a collaborative environment to become leaders informed by a firm foundation in engineering. The Schools faculty are at the center of the Universitys cross-disciplinary research, contributing to the Data Science Institute, Earth Institute, Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Precision Medicine Initiative, and the Columbia Nano Initiative. Guided by its strategic vision, Columbia Engineering for Humanity, the School aims to translate ideas into innovations that foster a sustainable, healthy, secure, connected, and creative humanity.

Read more:
New Clues as to Why Mutations in the MYH9 Gene Cause a Broad Spectrum of Disorders in Humans - Newswise

The human body is more than flesh and blood it bears cultural values and tales of morality. Swirling around todays bodies are important discussions about transgender rights, ableism, genetic engineering and body positivity. We can trace how ideal and atypical bodies are shown in advertising, movies and art, helping us understand shifting norms and persistent biases.

A bounteous art exhibition on display through Jan. 26 at the Seattle Art Museum offers powerful visions of how the body was represented and what it conveyed centuries ago in Italy. Flesh and Blood: Italian Masterpieces from the Capodimonte Museum really does boast masterpieces 39 beautifully crafted Renaissance and Baroque paintings (and one sculpture) by artists who were acknowledged masters in their time: Titian, Raphael, El Greco and many others. Not all of the artists were Italian but they all created work for Italian patrons. SAM curator Chiyo Ishikawa and her collaborators selected these works from the Capodimonte in Naples, the second-largest museum in Italy.

There is one female artist in the show: the incomparable Artemisia Gentileschi, who defied the customs of her day to become a professional artist. She painted several versions of Judith, a Jewish widow, in the act of killing Holofernes, an Assyrian general who besieged Judiths town. This early version is gorgeous and gruesome. Judiths strong arms cut across the canvas much like the sword she works against the generals throat. Someone long ago trimmed the canvas, leaving us with a tightly cropped revelation of female fortitude and righteousness. Gentileschis approach may have been shaped by her own experience the young artist painted this work just a few years after she was raped, in her home, by her art teacher.

Another painting hints at the relationship between gender and power, but with more mystery. Parmigianinos intriguing painting of an unknown woman includes the hallmarks of a marriageable young woman: She is elegantly dressed, revealing a tasteful amount of unblemished skin. This kind of portrait often signaled the acceptance of a suitors gifts (see: the jewelry and textiles shown in the painting), thereby entering a betrothal. But Ishikawa states that this was likely not a specific portrait and, instead, more of a symbolic representation of an ideal woman. I wonder how more typical signs of femininity would have been reconciled with the controlled forcefulness of her look, the bulk of her garments and the fierce teeth of the weasel-like marten, whose fur she wears.

Most of the other female-focused paintings in the exhibition are more conventional for their time, providing visions of maternal or spiritual devotion, sexual availability, chaste beauty or some odd combination thereof.

In Titians Dana, the title figure a mythological Greek princess lies naked on a bed, fully displayed for the viewers pleasure, while the god Zeus visits (in order to impregnate her), disguised as a shower of gold coins. The man who commissioned the work, Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, kept the large painting hidden behind a curtain, underscoring the works erotic intentions.

Male bodies, both dressed and naked, are exhibited as well, carrying connotations that range from divinity to gluttony. An altarpiece entitled Piet by Annibale Carracci shows the corpse of Jesus on his mothers lap. The thin, contorted torso, which has clearly suffered, and the lifeless hand, rendered in greenish grays, expose the mortal humanity of this divine figure.

Two stunning works by Jusepe de Ribera also use the male physique strategically. In a huge altarpiece, dramatic lighting calls attention to the sagging, wrinkled skin of St. Jerome, an early Christian ascetic who practiced penitential acts of self-deprivation and self-harm. The artist used feathery brush strokes on top of thicker layers of paint, hinting at how paint covers a canvas like skin, and reminding the faithful of the impermanence of an earthly body.

Riberas Drunken Silenus, on the other hand, is all about excess. Silenus, a companion of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, sprawls across the canvas with a brightly lit, barrel-like belly and a cup raised for a refill. His corpulent body is painted with ruddy and dingy highlights, linking unethical (or at least undisciplined) behavior with an unkempt body. His pose deliberately refers to the reclining-female-nude motif, suggesting his state of unmasculinity or impotence.

A standout painting by Agostino Carracci underscores old biases against bodies that would have been considered atypical. This commissioned portrait depicts members of a sort of entertainment troupe employed by Cardinal Odoardo Farnese. A dwarf named Tiny Amon looks toward Hairy Harry, a man with a condition that causes excessive hair growth. Its an almost unthinkable outlook today, but these men were seen as curiosities, collected for the amusement of the court. Their role is accentuated by the loyal dogs, exotic bird and monkeys that surround them.

After gorging on all this bodily symbolism, its a relief to enter the last gallery of the exhibition, with its wonderful still-life paintings. Ishikawa posits that, unlike the still lifes of Northern Europe, which often used food and flowers to hint at the transience of earthly pleasures, these are simply about the abundance of the region. It is true that the bouquets are not wilting and that there arent human skulls or hourglasses inserted into the compositions. And yet, the slashing blood on a goats head and the sharp knife balanced precariously on the edge of a table seem to warn of the vulnerability of the flesh.

Throughout the exhibition, we are reminded of how art much like a pitcher of wine or a human body within the paintings is a vessel for meaning and message. Gender, race, class, age, ability and size play roles in communicating these meanings, in ways that feel historically remote, intimately resonant or disappointingly familiar.

Old tropes continue today. The 2016 Report on the Status of Women and Girls inCaliforniastated that women appear nude (or partially nude) in films three times more frequently than men do. Standards of female beauty and sizing are still mostly based on young, tall and thinner-than-average bodies.

But there is an increasing spectrum of body types and messages in various images these days, mirroring slow shifts in attitudes toward gender, sex and beauty. Change will persevere as the producers of culture artists, actors, directors, writers increasingly emerge from within the diversity of the population. In fits and spurts, in art, entertainment and social media, we may see new forms of how the body is represented, and what it conveys.

_____

Flesh and Blood: Italian Masterpieces from the Capodimonte Museum, through Jan. 26, 2020; Seattle Art Museum, 1300 First Ave; $29.99 adult, $27.99 senior, $19.99 student, free for SAM members and children 14 and under; first Thursday reduced-ticket prices;seattleartmuseum.org

Gayle Clemans is an art critic, art historian and novelist; connect with her on Twitter and Instagram @gayleclemans.

See the rest here:
SAMs Flesh and Blood exhibit depicts desire, violence and more using the artistic vessel of the human body - Seattle Times

REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

The next generation of wireless cellular, called 5G, has started to roll out across the US, delivering speeds orders of magnitude faster than the 4G networks in use today.

For consumers, that means better video playback on mobile devices, but for businesses, 5G is expected to enable all manner of connected devices to work together more efficiently from connected cars to factory automation to smart buildings.

Joseph Cortese, associate director at the cybersecurity firm A-LIGN, said that will be a good thing.

"We will see a rush of businesses attempting to be the first-to-market with 5G enabled devices," Cortese said. "This will lead to an enormous swell in the size of the Internet of Things, with thousands of new devices joining the network." The Internet of Things is the name given to networks of connected devices in homes, business, and across cities.

But Cortese also said we need to be prepared for cyberattacks, which reliance on 5G could make unimaginably worse.

"Distributed denial of service attacks have the potential to quickly overload 5G networks and impact critical services. In the past, DDoS attacks have troubled services like Netflix and Airbnb, but in the future, the Internet of Things will be used for things like directing traffic patterns and providing emergency services workers with critical information."

In such an attack, large parts of a city's infrastructure will be rendered useless. In a smart city that depends on the Internet of Things, operations would be brought to a halt.

Cortese said, "Even a simple attack has the potential to cripple a smart city that relies on 5G networks to function."

Here is the original post:
Scientists reveal the 13 dark technology scenarios that keep them up at night - Business Insider

The Shed explores the impact of technology on our lives in Manual Override, a group exhibition that will include six works, four of which are newly commissioned. On view in The Shed's Griffin Theater from November 13, 2019 through January 12, 2020, the exhibition features work by Morehshin Allahyari, Simon Fujiwara, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Sondra Perry, and Martine Syms. Manual Override is organized by critic Nora N. Khan, The Shed's first guest curator, with Alessandra Gomez, curatorial assistant.

Manual Override features artists who critique the social, cultural, and ethical issues embedded in emerging technological systems and infrastructures ranging from mass surveillance to predictive policing. Central to the exhibition is the idea of a manual override, or human interference in an automated system, a gesture in response to an error in programming, or poor judgment in design. "How do you pause a system you can't see, touch, or access? As these systems become increasingly oppressive and beyond our understanding, and management, what options do we have?" asks Nora Khan. In response, each artist posits new forms of "overriding" to subvert the values of invasive technological systems. They do so through building networks of artistic collaboration across scientific and technological fields, including genetic engineering, simulation design, machine learning, and experimental computation.

For decades, pioneering artist and filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson has been working with scientists, geneticists, and engineers to explore the impact of technological progress on our understanding of the self. Hershman Leeson premieres the final episode in her seminal video series, The Electronic Diaries (1984-2019), and the new Shed commission, Shadow Stalker (2019). A new generation of artists-Morehshin Allahyari, Sondra Perry, Simon Fujiwara, and Martine Syms-have developed research practices that echo Hershman Leeson's hybrid collaborative model, which serves as the conceptual foundation for Manual Override.

"Manual Override challenges us to think in new ways about the ever-growing role and effect of technology in our lives," said Alex Poots, Artistic Director and CEO of The Shed. "Inspired by the groundbreaking work of Lynn Hershman Leeson, whose vision continues to influence generations of artists, our guest curator Nora Khan's exhibition explores the intersection between art, science, technology, psychology, and sociology in contemporary life. An important part of Manual Override is the range of new commissions that enable featured artists to realize their ambitious vision."

For more information visit: https://theshed.org/program/63-manual-override?sourceNumber=&utm_campaign=PressRelease%3AManualOverride&utm_content=version_A&utm_medium=email&utm_source=wordfly

Concert of Les Misrables Starring Michael Ball, Alfie Boe and Matt Lucas Will Be Broadcast Live In UK/Ireland Cinemas Daily Mail reporter Baz Bamigboye has reported that a staged concert ofLes Misrables starring Michael Ball, Alfie Boe and Matt Lucas Will Be Broadca... (read more)

Tony Nominee Ann Crumb Passes Away from Ovarian Cancer BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that Broadway actress and 1993 Tony Award nominee Ann Crumb has passed away following a long struggle with ovarian... (read more)

Patrick Dunn, Preston Truman Boyd, & Michelle Dowdy Join LES MISERABLES On Tour Cameron Mackintosh announced today that Patrick Dunn, Preston Truman Boyd and Michelle Dowdy will join the acclaimed production of Alain Boublil and C... (read more)

Lesli Margherita and Josh Lamon Will Lead Off-Broadway Run Of EMOJILAND The Musical After its critically-acclaimed sold out run in NYMF 2018, the new musical Emojiland will make a triumphant return to New York in a limited Off-Broadwa... (read more)

BEETLEJUICE's 'Say My Name' Is Amazon Music's Song Of The Day For Halloween BEETLEJUICE is currently featured as Amazon Music's Song of the Day on Halloween, Thursday, October 31, 2019. By saying, a?oeAlexa, play the song of t... (read more)

More here:
The Shed Will Present New Exhibition 'Manual Override' - Broadway World

More than 150 New Zealand scientists under 30 have signed a letter to the Green Party urging a rethink of its stance on the regulation of genetic modification. The full text of the letter follows.

To the members and supporters of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand and their representatives in government

Climate change is one of the greatest crises in human history, and our current law severely restricts the development of technologies that could make a vital difference. In 2003 the 1996 Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act was modified to tightly regulate research into genetic modification (GM). This legislation and the surrounding public debate was driven by uncertainty about the risks that these new technologies posed to biodiversity and human health, and resulted in creating one of the toughest regulatory environments in the world for this field of research.

We, an emerging generation of New Zealand scientists with expertise in and/or undertaking research in the biological sciences*, are writing to request that the Green Party reconsider its position on the regulation of these technologies. We are addressing this letter to the Greens because of a history of leading in science-based policy such as climate action, even when that path is difficult. We believe that GM based research could be decisive in our efforts to reduce New Zealand and global climate emissions as well as partially mitigating some of the impacts of climate change. At the same time, we emphasise that potential reduction of impact is not a substitute for emission reduction.

The period since the introduction of the 2003 legislation has seen important GM related research in the areas of agricultural efficiency, carbon sequestration, and alternative protein production. The existing regulation in New Zealand inhibits application of advances such as these, blocking not only the development of green technology, but the potential for a just transition away from extractive and polluting industries. New Zealand has the opportunity to be a world leader in such a transition: for example, the development and demonstration of effective technologies to reduce agricultural emissions could have an international impact and set an example for other countries.

While such a powerful technology as targeted genetic modification certainly requires controls, existing frameworks do not enable public and environmental benefits from these technologies to be realised. The gene editing expert advice panel supported by The Royal Society Te Aprangi, the Prime Ministers Chief Science Advisor, and the interim climate change committee have recently called for public discussion on potential reform of New Zealands laws around modern gene editing techniques.

As a confidence and supply member of the current government the Greens have the ability to drive this reform: the members can persuade the party to reconsider its policy position, and the Members of Parliament can influence the government it supports to revise the legislation. The Greens have been strong advocates of both climate action and evidence based policy informed by science. In this light we call upon its members, supporters, ministers, and MPs to add their voices to the cause of a science-based approach to climate, on behalf of the people and environment of both Aotearoa and the world.

Ng mihi

PhD

Kyle Webster, University of Auckland, Bio-nanotechnology

Luke Stevenson, Victoria University of Wellington, Biotechnology

Emilie Gios, University of Auckland, Microbial ecology

Morgane Merien, University of Auckland, Biological Sciences Entomology

Lucie Jiraska, University of Auckland, Environmental Microbiology

Victor Yim, University of Auckland, Peptide chemistry

Zach McLean, University of Auckland, Genetic engineering

Declan Lafferty, Plant and FoodResearch/University of Auckland, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Samarth Samarth, University of Canterbury, Plant Biology

Juliane Gaviraghi Mussoi, University of Auckland, Avian Behaviour

Alex Noble, University of Canterbury, Biology

Kelsey Burborough, University of Auckland, Genetics

Matthew Mayo-Smith, University of Auckland, Plant Molecular Biology

Moritz Miebach, University of Canterbury, Plant-microbe interactions

Olivia Ogilvie, University of Auckland, Food Biotech / Biochemistry

Rachel Bennie, University of Canterbury, Human Toxicology

Sean Mackay, University of Otago, Chemistry and Nanotechnology

Georgia Carson, Victoria University of Wellington, Cell and Molecular Biology

Ruby Roach, Massey University

Jeremy Stephens, Massey University, Biology

Zidong (Andy) Li, Massey University, Molecular Cancer Biology

Aqfan Jamaluddin, University of Auckland, Molecular Pharmacology

Michael Fairhurst, Victoria University of Wellington, Microbiology

Nikolai Kondratev, Massey University, Plant Biology

Mariana Tarallo, Massey University, Plant pathology

Ellie Bradley, Massey University, Plant pathology

Mercedes Rocafort Ferrer, Massey University, Plant pathology

Yi-Hsuan Tu, Massey University, Biochemistry & Microbiology

Sean Bisset, Massey University, Biochemistry

Patrick Main, Massey University, Biological sciences

Abigail Sharrock, Victoria University of Wellington, Biotechnology

Alvey Little, Victoria University of Wellington, Molecular Microbiology

William Odey, Victoria University of Wellington, Biotechnology

Gabrielle Greig, Victoria University of Wellington, Molecular Microbiology

Melanie Olds, Victoria University of Wellington, Biotechnology

Jennifer Soundy, Victoria University of Wellington, Biological Sciences

Matire Ward, Victoria University of Wellington, Cell and molecular bioscience

Tom Dawes, Victoria University of Wellington, Plant Ecology

Hamish Dunham, Victoria University of Wellington, Biomedical science

Amy Alder, Victoria University of Wellington, Neuroscience

Caitlin Harris, University of Otago, Plant genetics

Lucy Gorman, Victoria University of Wellington, Coral reef biology

Vincent Nowak, Victoria University of Wellington, Biotechnology

Brandon Wright, University of Otago, Biochemistry

Anna Tribe, Victoria University of Wellington, Cancer cell biology

Conor McGuinness, University of Otago, Breast Cancer

Genomics/Immunology Kelsi Hall, Victoria University of Wellington, Biotechnology

Andrew Howard, University of Waikato, Biochemistry

Mitch Ganley, Victoria University of Wellington, Biotechnology/vaccines

Matt Munro, Victoria University of Wellington, Biomedical Science

Prashath Karunaraj, University of Otago, Genetics

Pascale Lubbe, University of Otago, Evolutionary genetics

Mackenzie Lovegrove, University of Otago, Genetics, Insect evolution

Nicholas Foster, University of Otago, Ecology

Taylor Hamlin, University of Otago, Antarctic Marine Ecosystem & Movement Ecology

Fionnuala Murphy, Massey University, Proteomics

Amanda Board, University of Canterbury, Protein Biochemistry

Esther Onguta, Massey University, Food Technology

Nomie Petit, University of Auckland, Proteins

Liam Le Lievre, University of Otago, Plant Reproduction

James Hunter, University of Otago, Ecology

Samarth Kulshrestha, University of Canterbury,

Rebecca Clarke, University of Otago, Whole body regeneration

Sarah Killick, University of Auckland, Environmental Science

Stephanie Workman, University of Otago, Developmental Genetics

Erik Johnson, University of Otago, Oceanography

Declan Lafferty, University of Auckland, Molecular Biology

Laurine van Haastrecht, Victoria University of Wellington, Glaciology

Leo Mercer, Victoria University of Wellington, Environmental Studies

Aidan Joblin-Mills, Victoria University of Wellington, Chemical Genetics

Gabrielle Keeler-May, University of Otago, Marine Science

Aqfan Jamaluddin, University of Auckland, Pharmacology

Spencer McIntyre, University of Auckland, Biological Sciences

Sarah Inwood, University of Otago, Genetics

Isabelle Barrett, University of Canterbury, Freshwater ecology

Olivia Angelin-Bonnet, Massey University, Biostatistics

Hannah McCarthy, Massey University, Plant Pathology

Sofie Pearson, Massey University, Plant Science

Zac Beechey-Gradwell, Lincoln University, Plant physiology

Hannah Lee-Harwood, Victoria University of Wellington, Biotechnology

Euan Russell, University of Otago, Microbiology

Masters

Kelly Styles, University of Auckland, Biological Sciences

Merlyn Robson, University of Auckland, Virology

Andra Popa, University of Auckland

James Love, University of Auckland, Bioinformatics

Evie Mansfield, University of Auckland, Molecular Microbiology

Ash Sargent, University of Auckland, Immunology

Sabrina Cuellar, University of Auckland, Plant Genetics

Renji Jiang, University of Canterbury, Plant pathology

Morgan Tracy, University of Canterbury, Ecology

Continued here:
GM could be decisive: An open letter to the Green Party from young NZ scientists - The Spinoff

(Pixabay)

I have been covering the bioethics movement since the late 1990s, writing several books (one award-winning) on the subject.

When bioethics began, there was a great internal intellectual struggle for dominance between Paul Ramseys traditional Christian-focused sanctity-of-life thought and the lapsed Episcopalian priest Joseph Fletchers crassly relativistic autonomy utilitarianism. Alas, Fletcher won that battle and the mainstream movement became, if not strictly utilitarian, certainly utilitarianish.

Bioethics also veered sharply left politically with ambitions of leading the technocracy in which movement luminaries would be the new high priests establishing public health policies, funding priorities, and determining the ethics of medicine (such as obliterating the rights of medical conscience). You certainly saw that paradigm in action in the administration of Obamacare, although the laws most dangerous technocratic threats were blunted by subsequent events, such as the repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB).

For a time, it looked like bioethics would assume broad societal power. But now, Nature perhaps the worlds most prestigious science journal has published a long, and I must say surprising, piece concluding that at least with regard to biotechnology, bioethics is obsolete. From, Ethical ResearchThe Long and Bumpy Road from Shirked to Shared, by Sarah Franklin, the chair of sociology and director of the Reproductive Sociology Research Group at the University of Cambridge.

Just as the ramifications of the birth of modern biology were hard to delineate in the late nineteenth century, so there is a sense of ethical bewilderment today. The feeling of being overwhelmed is exacerbated by a lack of regulatory infrastructure or adequate policy precedents. Bioethics, once a beacon of principled pathways to policy, is increasingly lost, like Simba, in a sea of thundering wildebeest.

Exactly true. For example, rather than push hard for international regulatory controls of CRISPR germ line genetic engineering techniques in humans, bioethicists mostly wrung their hands and advocated a non-binding self-restraint until the technology becomes safe.

Franklin says bioethicists have ceased being thought leaders but merely so many PR professionals in the service of Big Biotech:

The field no longer relies on philosophically derived mandates codified into textbook formulas. Instead, it functions as a dashboard of pragmatic instruments, and is less expert-driven, more interdisciplinary, less multipurpose and more bespoke.

In the wake of the turn to dialogue in science, bioethics often looks more like public engagement and vice versa. Policymakers, polling companies and government quangos tasked with organizing ethical consultations on questions such as mitochondrial donation (three-parent embryos, as the media would have it) now perform the evaluations formerly assigned to bioethicists. Journal editors, funding bodies, grant-review boards and policymakers are increasingly the new ethical adjudicators.

And here I thought the power of bioethics was alarming! But the virtual moral anarchy dictated by the golden rule (he who has the money makes the rules) Franklin describes is even worse.

In a social-media-saturated age wary of fake news, the new holy grail is the ability to create trustworthy systems for governing controversial research such as chimeric embryos and face-recognition algorithms. The pursuit of a more ethical science has come to be associated with building trust by creating transparent processes, inclusive participation and openness to uncertainty, as opposed to distinguishing between is and ought...

The result is less reliance on specialized ethical expertise and more attention to diversity of representationThe implication of this new model is that the most ethical science is the most sociable one, and thus that scientific excellence depends on greater inclusivity. We are better together we must all be ethicists now.

In such a milieu in which there really is no right and wrong, who needs bioethicists?

The huge problem Franklin ignores is that we are not having the kind of democratic discourse about the future of biotechnology that Franklin envisions. Good grief, these issues barely break into the news. All that matters today is love or hate Trump!

Franklin is right that bioethics has lost substantial influence in biotechnology, which is a distinction without a substantial difference as the movement has mostly served as a rubber stamp for approving controversial research in the media and halls of government anyway.

But it is much too early to put the movement into hospice care. Bioethics still exerts tremendous influence in the public policy of healthcare. So, we are stuck with the worst of both worlds. We stand helpless before a biotechnology sector creating inventions of almost limitless power beyond substantial ethical or legal control as our medical system is dominated by so-called experts who deny the sanctity and intrinsic dignity of human life.

Unless there is a great ethical awakening, this will not end well.

Read the original:
Nature Magazine Article Argues Bioethics Is Obsolete - National Review