Inaugural Bourns lecture addresses the evolution of genomics
[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Daar_A.jpg” caption=”Abdallah Daar”]Established in 2004 by Dr. Arthur Bourns, former McMaster President and professor emeritus, chemistry, this lecture series will bring a distinguished scholar in the field of bioethics to McMaster every two years. Given the revolutionary advances in biotechnology, genetic engineering and health-related research, the field of bioethics has become an urgent and challenging area of scholarly investigation. This lectureship aims to foster a wide-ranging discussion about the pressing ethical questions and how they might be addressed from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including humanists, social scientists and policy makers, medical and natural scientists, and engineers.
The inaugural lecturer, Abdallah Daar, is professor of public health sciences and of surgery at the University of Toronto, where he is also director of the program in applied ethics and biotechnology, co-director of the Canadian Program on Genomics and Global Health (CPGGH), and director of ethics and policy at the McLaughlin Centre for Molecular Medicine.
Over the past 5 years, Daar has been instrumental in developing a major research-based program, the CPGGH, with a focus on how to best harness the life sciences and other convergent technologies to improve the health of people in developing countries.
Daar's talk on life sciences and global health will cover the evolution of this genomics program, its empirical research studies and results, its global collaborations, and some of the early indications of its impact. Genomics and modern biotechnology are often considered to be of immediate relevance only to the relatively rich populations of the world. However, when broadly conceived, these life science fields are likely to have a larger impact on the health and welfare of the 90% of humankind that lives in the developing world.
The Bourns Lecture in Bioethics is to take place on Wednesday, March 29 at 4 p.m. in Togo Salmon Hall, room 120. The event is open to the public; no RSVP is necessary.
