The meeting was devoted to one of the most innovative and widely discussed concepts in contemporary biology and medicine – so-called bodyoids – anatomical structures grown in a laboratory using pluripotent stem cells. Currently, it is not possible to obtain such models even in animals, but it is an idea that seems plausible enough to be discussed and considered. Although the topic is controversial, it is a good starting point for scientific debate, which may in the future enable the development of modern solutions in regenerative medicine, transplantology, or pharmacy.
O prowadzących:
Carsten Charlesworth, PhD., is a postdoctoral scholar in the laboratory of Dr. Hiromitsu Nakauchi at Stanford University. He received his undergraduate degree in biology from Cal Poly Humboldt. He first joined Stanford through a CIRM-funded internship and has remained there since where he received his PhD., working at the intersection of stem cell biology, synthetic biology, and regenerative medicine. His research focuses on the genetic engineering of stem cells and their use in developing new therapeutic approaches. He has worked on gene therapy, in vivo delivery, and the use of human cells as vehicles for delivering genetic medicines. Most recently, he has been involved in developing bodyoids, stem cell–derived constructs designed to model aspects of human biology, which emerged from a practical frustration with the challenges of translating promising scientific advances into clinical treatments and the ethical complexities of using sentient animal models to advance biomedicine.
Henry T. (Hank) Greely is the Deane F. and Kate Edelman Johnson Professor of Law; Professor, by courtesy, of Genetics; and Director of the Center for Law and the Biosciences at Stanford University. He specializes in ethical, legal, and social issues arising from the biosciences, particularly genetics, neuroscience, stem cell research, and assisted reproduction. He is a founder and a past president of the International Neuroethics Society and chairs the California Advisory Committee on Human Stem Cell Research. For six years, until August 2022, he served on the NIH BRAIN Initiative’s Multi-Council Working Group while co-chairing the Initiative’s Neuroethics Work Group and for three years, until March 2024, he chaired the ELSI Committee of the Earth BioGenome Project. He is the author of THE END OF SEX AND THE FUTURE OF HUMAN REPRODUCTION (Harv. Univ. Press 2016) and CRISPR PEOPLE: THE SCIENCE AND ETHICS OF EDITING HUMANS (MIT Press 2021). Greely graduated from Stanford in 1974 and Yale Law School in 1977. He clerked for Judge John Minor Wisdom of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Potter Stewart, then served in the Departments of Defense and Energy in the Carter Administration. He litigated at the Los Angeles firm of Tuttle & Taylor before joining the Stanford faculty in 1985.