The Future of Stem Cell Reseach

1. Program Overview
2. Participants List
3. Symposium Schedule
4. Readings
5. Ballot & Voting Results
6. Real Video of the Conference
7. Other Stem Cell Websites

Participant List

Congressman Jay Dickey, J.D.
U.S. House of Representatives,
Arkansas, 4th District

Dickey graduated from the University of Arkansas with a B.A. Degree from the School of Arts and Sciences in 1961 (combined degree) and from the School of Law in 1963. During law school, he was elected to the law school's Student Senate. He returned to his home town of Pine Bluff to practice law with his father, Jay W. Dickey Sr., thus becoming the third generation lawyer of that firm. Dickey was elected United States Representative for the Fourth District of Arkansas - the first Republican to be elected to the Seat - in November, 1992. He won re-election in 1994, 1996, and 1998. Dickey serves on the House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittees on Agriculture, Defense, and Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education.

Richard M. Doerflinger
Associate Director for Policy Development
Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, National Conference of Catholic Bishops

Doerflinger holds a B.A. degree and an M.A. in Divinity from the University of Chicago, and has conducted doctoral studies in Theology at the Catholic University of America. Doerflinger has been Associate Director for Policy Development at the Secretariat for the Pro-Life Activities, National Conference of Catholic Bishops, for over 18 years. Among his duties are the preparation of policy statements and congressional testimony on abortion, euthanasia, and other medical-moral issues for the bishops' conference. Since 1991 Mr. Doerflinger has edited the monthly newsletter Life at Risk: A Chronicle of Euthanasia Trends in America, and has coordinated efforts against physician-assisted suicide for the bishops conference. He has published widely on this and other life issues.

Kevin T. Fitzgerald, J.S., Ph.D.
Research Associate
Departments of Medicine and Medical Humanities
Loyola University Medical Center

Kevin Fitzgerald received his Ph.D. in molecular genetics from Georgetown University, and is presently in the process of completing a doctorate in bioethics, also at Georgetown. The two principal foci of his research efforts at Loyola are the investigation of abnormal gene regulation in leukemia and research on ethical issues in human genetics.

Norman Fost, M.P.H., M.D.
Professor of Pediatrics
Director of the Program in Medical Ethics
University of Wisconsin

Dr. Norman Fost is a graduate of Princeton (A.B. 1960), Yale (M.D. 1964) and Harvard (M.P.H. 1973). He completed residency training in pediatrics and 2 years as Chief Resident at the Johns Hopkins University Hospital. He was a fellow in the Harvard Program in Law, Medicine and Ethics from 1972 to 1973. Since 1973 he has been at the University of Wisconsin where he is Professor of Pediatrics, Director of the Program in Medical Ethics, head of the Child Protection Team and works as a general pediatrician. He is Chairman of three committees: the Hospital Ethics Committee, the Human Subjects Committee, and the University's Bioethics Advisory Committee, which reviewed Professor James Thomson's pioneering work in human embryonic stem cells. He has served on the AAAS Stem Cell Research Working Group and numerous federal and state committees addressing ethical issues in genetics, AIDS, and treatment of children with severe handicaps.

Robert A. Goldstein, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief Scientific Officer
Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International

Dr. Goldstein currently serves as Chief Scientific Officer of the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International (JDF), where he is responsible for the development and conduct of all of its research activities. JDF will spend more than $75 million this year on research to find a cure for Type 1 diabetes and its complications. Prior to joining JDF in 1997 he was Director of the Extramural Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, where he was responsible for more than 1000 grants, contracts and training awards. He has an A.B. from Brandeis University, an M.D. from Jefferson Medical College, a Ph.D. from George Washington University (immunology) and an M.B.A. from the Stern School of Business, New York University. He is Board certified in internal medicine, pulmonary disease and allergy/immunology and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American College of Chest Physicians and the American Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Ronald M. Green, Ph.D.
Eunice and Julian Cohen Professor for the Study of Ethics and Human Values,
Professor of Religion, and Director, Ethics Institute, Dartmouth College

Professor Ronald Green is the Director of Dartmouth's Institute for the Study of Applied and Professional Ethics. During 1994 he served as a member of the National Institutes of Health Human Embryo Research Panel and collaborated on the writing of the Panel's Report providing guidelines for all future federally-funded research on the human embryo. From February 1996 through June of 1997, he served as a consultant to the NIH's National Institute for Human Genome Research, where he aided in the establishment of the Office of Genome Ethics. Professor Green is a member of the Bioethics Committee of the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation. He is the author of over eighty articles and five books in the fields of ethical theory, religious ethics, and applied ethics, including medical ethics and business ethics. His most recent books include Religion and Moral Reason (Oxford, 1988) and The Ethical Manager (Macmillan, 1994).

Daniel R. Marshak, Ph.D.
Osiris Therapeutics, Inc.
Adjunct Professor, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Daniel Marshak received his A.B. from Harvard University in biochemistry and molecular biology and his Ph.D. from Rockefeller University. He did postdoctoral research in pharmacology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and at the National Institutes of Health. Marshak is Senior Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of Osiris Therapeutics, Inc., a US biotechnology company developing adult stem cell products for the regeneration and functional restoration of diseased or damaged tissues. Osiris is a leader in the emerging field of Regenerative Medicine. Marshak also holds an appointment as Adjunct Associate Professor of Oncology and of Molecular Biology & Genetics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Marshak has served on several NIH Study Sections, the Medical and Scientific Advisory Board of the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation, and the Editorial Board of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

Ronald D. G. McKay, Ph.D.
Laboratory Chief, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes (NINDS) Laboratory of Molecular Biology

Dr. McKay received his Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Edinburgh. He served as Senior Staff Investigator at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory from 1978-1984 and Professor in Human Biology at MIT from 1984-1993. He is currently Chief of the Molecular Biology Laboratory at NINDS, National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD.

Eric M. Meslin, Ph.D.
Executive Director, NBAC
National Bioethics Advisory Commission

Dr. Meslin received his B.A. in Philosophy from York University (Toronto) and both his M.A. and Ph.D. from the Bioethics Program in Philosophy at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University. He is currently the Executive Director of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission. NBAC was established by Executive Order signed by President Clinton in October of 1995. Its function is to provide advice and to make recommendations to the National Science and Technology Council and to other appropriate government entities. These recommendations concern the appropriateness of departmental, agency, or other governmental programs, policies, assignments, missions, guidelines, and regulations as they relate to bioethical issues that arise from research on human biology and behavior; and applications, including the clinical applications, of that research.

Judy E. Stern, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Pathology Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center an adjunct Associate Professor at Vermont Law School.

Dr. Stern received her Ph.D. in zoology from University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Dr. Stern has taught both undergraduate and graduate courses at Dartmouth College. She is a co-faculty member for the multidisciplinary course entitled "Assisted Reproduction: The Scientific, Ethical and Social Challenge of a New Biomedical Technology." At the Dartmouth Medical School, she gives lectures in general endocrinology, reproductive endocrinology, conception, and implantation. She also does informal teaching in conjunction with the clinical activities of students doing rotations in Ob/Gyn. Since 1992, she has also taught courses for the Masters of Arts and Liberal Studies Program on the topics of "science and gender" and "medical-legal issues in reproduction." She has done teaching and research related to the ethical issues in both assisted reproductive technology and scientific research. She is a co-author of the book The Ethics of Scientific Research: A Guidebook for Course Development and a co-editor of the book Research Ethics: A Reader.

Michael David West, Ph.D.
Chief Executive Officer
Advanced Cell Technology, Inc.

Dr. West received his Ph.D. from Baylor College of Medicine and has focused his academic and business career on the application of developmental biology to age-related degenerative disease. In 1998 he co-founded Origen Therapeutics of South San Francisco, California. This company develops transgenic technology applicable to commercial poultry production. From 1990 to 1998 he was the founder, director, and Vice President of Geron Corporation of Menlo Park, California, where he initiated and managed programs in telomerase diagnostics, telomerase inhibition, telomerase-mediated therapy, and human embryonic stem cells.

Lee A. Witters, M.D.
Eugene W. Leonard 1921 Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry
Dartmouth Medical School
Director, Humanitates Vitae, Dartmouth College

Dr. Witters, the former Chief of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at Dartmouth Medical School, has been a member of the Dartmouth faculty since 1985. Previously, he served as a member of the Diabetes Unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital and was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School. His research laboratory focuses on molecular mechanisms of hormone action and the regulation of cell metabolism in diabetes and other diseases. He is the author of more than 100 publications, reviews and books.