Event Description:
Fundamental research to understand how bacteria fight viral infections uncovered programmable proteins that detect and cut specific DNA sequences. In collaboration with Emmanuelle Charpentier’s laboratory, we determined how the enzyme Cas9, which is part of CRISPR-Cas adaptive bacterial immunity, can be harnessed as a powerful technology to alter genomic sequences in cells. This created a simple, precise and widely adaptable technology for genome editing – changing or regulating the genetic material – in any cell or organism. Current research is exploring the diversity of CRISPR-Cas systems in microbes and developing genome editing for biomedical and agricultural applications. I will also discuss the ethical and societal implications of genome editing.
Event Speakers:
- Speaker: Jennifer A. Doudna, Professor of Chemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, HHMI Investigator
- Respondent: Hank T. Greely, Deane F. and Kate Edelman Johnson Professor of Law; Director, Center for Law and the Biosciences; Stanford Law School.
Event Information:
Founded in 1948, the Bampton Lectures in America are a series of biennial lectures given by prominent scholars in the fields of theology, science, art, and medicine. Established through a bequest from Ada Byron Bampton Tremaine, the Lectures are given at periodic intervals in the fields of religion, science, art, and medicine. In accordance with the wishes of Ms Tremaine, they are delivered to a general audience and subsequently published. Included among those who have delivered the Bampton lectures are: Arnold Toynbee, Paul Tillich, Fred Hoyle, Alasdair C. MacIntyre, Jonathan Riley-Smith, and Irving Weissman.
Free and open to the public. Registration required.
