Editable Future – The Technical, Ethical, Legal and Artistic Perspectives of Gene Editing

Organizers:
Chinese Academy of Fine Arts, CAFA Art Museum, Berggruen Research Center, Peking University

Much controversy has grown in the public with the development of gene editing methods. The society looks confused in front of this cutting age technology which has the power to change people’s lives or rather the whole world, for good or bad. What is gene editing? What can go wrong? What are the ethical and legal controversies in the current debates? Where are we heading as a species? Two top gene editing scientists, two policy researchers, an artist and a curator sit together to share their thoughts with the public.

Topics and speakers:

A Brief Introduction of Genome Editing Technology
Yangming WANG, Berggruen Fellow, Principal Investigator of the Institute of Molecular Medicine, Peking University.

Gene Edited Babies: What went wrong and what could go wrong
Haoyi WANG, Principle Investigator of the State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Ethical and Legal Controversies concerning Human Germline Genome Editing
Yaojin PENG, Associate professor at the Institute of Zoology, Innovation Academy for Stem Cell and Regeneration (IASCR), Chinese Academy of Sciences

The Governance of Biotechnology: the Wisdom of the History and the Challenge of the Emerging Gene Editing
Lu GAO, Associate professor in Institute for the History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Gene as Artistic Media
Jo WEI, Researcher of Art, Science and Technology at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Curator

Identity issues: Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?
Marta de Menezes, Artist