HUMAN NATURE and the Gene Editing Revolution: Science Fiction, Fact and Forward

Dr. Cynthia Dunbar, National Institutes of Health Distinguished Investigator and chief of its Translational Stem Cell Biology Branch and series host Jason Dick, Editor in Chief of Roll Call, will discuss the scientific detective story that resulted in the development of CRISPR gene therapy, the fallout over the technology’s rapid development, and the ethics of gene editing, including Dr. Dunbar’s first-hand experience with principals in the film and participation in some of the events portrayed.

Film Synopsis: A breakthrough called CRISPR has given us unprecedented control over the basic building blocks of life. It opens the door to curing diseases, reshaping the biosphere, and designing our own children. HUMAN NATURE is a provocative exploration of CRISPR’s far-reaching implications, through the eyes of the scientists who discovered it, the families it’s affecting, and the bioengineers who are testing its limits. How will this new power change our relationship with nature? What will it mean for human evolution? To begin to answer these questions we must look back billions of years and peer into an uncertain future.

ONE SHOW ONLY • Wednesday, February 12 @ 7:30PM in Avalon 1

About the Speakers:

Cynthia “Cindy” Dunbar, MD, NIH Distinguished Investigator, Chief, Translational Stem Cell Biology Branch, and Head, Molecular Hematopoiesis Section, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD. Dr. Dunbar has pursued a career encompassing clinical investigation, translational laboratory science, and education/administration. She has been a leader in optimizing and assessing the potential of CRISPR/Cas gene editing approaches to modify hematopoietic stem cells and has used gene editing to create predictive non-human primate models of multiple human hematopoietic disorders. She has also designed and led landmark clinical trials in autoimmune diseases, and both congenital and acquired bone marrow failure, resulting in regulatory Food and Drug Administration approval for the first new drug treatment for aplastic anemia in over thirty years. She has published over 310 articles in peer-reviewed journals, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, and served as Editor-in-Chief of Blood, the premier hematology journal worldwide, the first woman to serve in this position.

Jason Dick is the editor in chief of CQ Roll Call and the host of its Political Theater podcast. He has also worked at National Journal and for the AmeriCorps program, and is a former English teacher at the university and high school levels. A one-time screener for the SXSW Film Festival, he is a native of Arizona and lives on Capitol Hill.

Science on Screen® launched at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline, MA in 2005. In partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and its pioneering nationwide film program, the Coolidge has expanded Science on Screen to 122 cinemas nationwide. Throughout the academic year, SoS creatively pairs screenings of classic, cult, science fiction, and documentary films with lively presentations by notable experts from the world of science and technology. Each film is used as a jumping-off point for a speaker to introduce current research or technological advances in a manner that engages popular culture audiences—enhancing film and scientific literacy through film.