Stem Cells:  Saving Lives or Crossing Lines (November 20-21, 2004)
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Speaker Biographies

James F. Battey, M.D., Ph.D. is the Director of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) and the Chair of the Stem Cell Task Force at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Battey earned a B.S. from the California Institute of Technology and M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University. Following residency training in pediatrics at Stanford he received postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School under the direction of Philip Leder. Dr. Battey came to NIH in 1983 as a Senior Staff Fellow and then Senior Investigator with National Cancer Institute (NCI). In 1988 he moved to the NINDS as Chief of the Molecular Neuroscience Section and in 1992 returned to NCI to head the Molecular Structure Section of the Laboratory of Biological Chemistry. Dr. Battey was appointed Director of Intramural Research for NIDCD in 1995 and chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in 1996. He was appointed Director for NIDCD in 1998. Dr. Battey's laboratory focuses on the molecular genetic analysis of biologic responses mediated by mammalian bombesin-like peptides and their receptors.

Robert Bazell is Chief Health and Science Correspondent for NBC News (“NBC Nightly News”, “Today”, and “Dateline”) and has received the George Foster Peabody award for distinguished achievement and meritorious service in broadcasting. Beginning his journalism career in 1971 as a writer for Science magazine, Mr. Bazell has since then received numerous awards, such as the Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award, the Maggie Award from the Planned Parenthood Foundation, and two Emmy Awards for programs on the subject of the brain. He has reported on a wide range of topics, encompassing science, technology, and medicine. One of these subjects was the AIDS epidemic, and his reporting included information from the United States, Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and South America. He has also authored the book HER-2: The Making of Herception, a Revolutionary Treatment for Breast Cancer.

Mr. Bazell received a B.A. in biochemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, did graduate work in biology at the University of Sussex, England, and was awarded a doctoral candidate degree in immunology at Berkeley.


Richard R. Behringer, Ph.D. is the Deputy Chairman of the Department of Molecular Genetics and the holder of the Ben F. Love Chair in Cancer Research at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. He is an internationally recognized developmental biologist who has made crucial contributions to our understanding of early embryonic decisions about hte vertebrate body plans. He has also made key advances in the field of reproductive biology where his work has focused on the mechanisms of sexual differentiation. Dr. Behringer makes extensive use of the powerful method of gene targeting in mouse embryonic stem cells in order to generate animal models for human diseases. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Genesis, a journal devoted to genetics and development and the author of two major textbooks about mouse embryonic development. Dr. Behringer received his undergraduate degree from California State University and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina.

William R. Brinkley, Ph.D. is the Senior Vice President for Graduate Sciences and Dean Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine. He is a Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and serves as co-director of the W.M. Keck Center for Computational Biology. Brinkley began his career at Baylor in 1976, as the director of the Division of Cell Structure and Function in the Department of Cell Biology. In 1985, he became chair of the Department of Cell Biology and director of the Gregory Fleming James Cystic Fibrosis Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He returned to Baylor in his present position in 1991.

Dr. Brinkley received his undergraduate degree in general biology from Sam Houston State University and his Ph.D. in Cell Biology at Iowa State University.


C. Thomas Caskey, M.D. is Managing Director of Cogene Ventures, Ltd., a venture capital fund supporting early-stage biotechnology companies. He served Baylor College of Medicine for 25 years in several senior positions, one being Chairman of the Department of Molecular and Human Genetics. Dr. Caskey was Senior Vice President, Research at Merck Research Laboratories from 1994 to 2000 and Trustee and President of the Merck Genome Research Institute from 1999 to 2000. There, he expanded research and the spread of genetic technology in the biomedical community. He has also served as President of the Human Genome Organization and has been awarded the Distinguished Texas Geneticist Award. He serves on the Intramural Human Genome Projects Special Review Committee, the National Institutes of Health, and on the editorial boards of the Journal of the American Medical Association and Science. He has been a member of many medical societies and advisory boards throughout his career. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, and serves on the boards of several corporations, such as Genometrix, Lexicon, and Athersys, Inc.

Dr. Caskey received his undergraduate degree from the University of South Carolina and his M.D. from Duke University. He is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Clinical Genetics, Metabolic Disorders, and Molecular Diagnostics.


Richard E. Champlin, M.D. is the Chairman of the Department of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center . His current research includes various studies ones on leukemia, lymphoma, breast cancer, aplastic anemia and other hematologic malignancies. Dr. Champlin is the former President of the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and the Council of Donor, Collection and Transplant Centers for the National Marrow Donor Program. He is a member of the Hematology Board for the American Board of Internal Medicine and a member of the Biologic Response Modifiers Advisory Committee for the Food and Drug Administration. In addition, his special appointments as a member for the Bone Marrow Transplant Committee for the National Cancer Center Network, a Board Member of the International Society for Hematotherapy and Graft Engineering, and Vice President of the Foundation for Accreditation of Hematocellular Therapies.

Dr. Champlin received his B.S. from Purdue University , his M.D., with honors, from the University of Chicago , Pritzker School of Medicine, and completed his residency in internal medicine from the UCLA School of Medicine and a fellowship program in Hematology and Medical Oncology at UCLA Center for the Health Sciences.


Jose B. Cibelli, D.V.M., Ph.D. is Professor of Animal Biotechnology at Michigan State University, and Head of Cellular Reprogramming Laboratory in the Departments of Animal Science and Physiology. As one of the pioneers in the area of cloning with transgenic somatic cells for the production of animals and embryonic stem cells, Dr. Cibelli served as the vice president for research of Advanced Cell Technology-Worchester, Massachusetts. He and his colleagues are responsible for the first transgenic cloned calves, the first embryonic stem cells by nuclear transfer, and the first embryonic stem cells by parthenogenesis in primates. Dr. Cibelli collaborated with South Korean scientists and authored their paper, published by the journal Science, which described the first successful clone of human embryonic stem cells.

Dr. Cibelli has testified about nuclear transfer and stem cells in forums sponsored by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the National Academy of Sciences, Canadian House of Commons, the 60th Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights-Geneva, Switzerland, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He is also the editor of the recently-published book Principles of Cloning.

Dr. Cibelli did his undergraduate work in Argentina and earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of La Plata. He received his Ph.D. in Reproductive Psychology from the University of Massachusetts.


Eric Cohen is the director of the Biotechnology and American Democracy program at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.  He is also the editor of The New Atlantis , the Ethic and Public Policy Center's journal about the ethical, political, and social implications of technological advancement. His professional experience includes being a consultant to the President's Council on Bioethics, a Resident Fellow for the New America Foundation, a Phillips Foundation Fellow, and the managing editor for The Public Interest. Mr. Cohen's research areas include American conservatism, bioethics, liberalism, medical ethics, and technology. His numerous publications include, “Sen. Kerry's Stem-Cell Fairy Tales” in The Los Angeles Times and “The Party of Cloning” in The Weekly Standard .

Mr. Cohen received his B.A. in Social Thought from Williams College and was a Fulbright Scholar from the College of the Humanities at Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.

Elizabeth Cohen is a medical correspondent for CNN’s health and medical unit. Her reports air throughout CNN/U.S, CNN International and Headline News programs. During her 13-year tenure as a medical reporter, Cohen has reported on a wide variety of health stories, including cancer, cloning, diets, heart disease, mad cow disease, SARS, sexual dysfunction and stem cell research.

In 2003, her one-hour documentary “Fountain of Youth” looked at the anti-aging revolution, including America’s obsession with plastic surgery, injections and cosmeceuticals. Another documentary “Fat Chance” examined causes for the alarmingly high rate of obesity in the United States as well as some solutions. The documentary revealed myths about metabolism and dieting and shared seven secrets of how to battle fat genes. Both “Fountain of Youth” and “Fat Chance” were installments of CNN Presents, the network’s award-winning documentary series. After the September 2001 terrorist attacks, Cohen reported from the streets of New York City with updates that included one-on-one interviews with friends and relatives of those who were missing.

Cohen has received several awards for her work. Her coverage on obesity won a first-place award in the American Medical Association’s International Health and Medical Film Competition, and she has twice been a finalist for the International Health and Medical Media award known as the “Freddie.” She is also the recipient of the Russell L. Cecil Medical Journalism Award from the Arthritis Foundation and the Golden Triangle Award from the American Academy of Dermatology.

Before joining CNN in 1991, Cohen was associate producer of Green Watch, an environmental show on WLVI-TV in Boston. Before working in television, she was a newspaper reporter for States News Service in Washington, D.C., and for the Times Union in Albany, N.Y., where she won a Hearst Award. A winner of the outstanding alumna award from Columbia College, Cohen received a bachelor’s degree in history. She earned a master’s degree in public health from Boston University.


Robert F. Curl, Ph.D. is the Kenneth S. Pitzer – Schlumberger Professor of Natural Sciences, member of the Department of Chemistry at Rice University and a University Professor. Dr. Curl received his bachelor's degree from Rice University in 1954. He earned his doctorate in 1957 from the University of California at Berkley under Dr. Kenneth Pitzer. After a one-year post-doctoral stint in the Mallinkrodt Laboratory at Harvard University , Dr. Curl returned to Rice University as an assistant professor in 1958, where he remains to this day. A great deal of Dr. Curl's research has been collaborative, involving other principals both at Rice University and elsewhere. One of these collaborations led to the discovery of fullerenes and the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Dr. Curl's current research is in the area of physical chemistry with emphasis on spectroscopy, gas phase kinetics, and environmental monitoring. He is also a Scholar at the Rice Quantum Institute and a member of the National Academy of Science.


Steven Currall, Ph.D. is the William and Stephanie Sick Professor of Entrepreneurship and an Associate Professor of Management, Psychology, and Statistics at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management at Rice University . He has research, teaching, and advising experience in the areas of emerging technology companies, negotiation, and corporate governance. In addition, Dr. Currall is Founding Director of the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship, a university center that is a partnership of the Schools of Engineering, Management and Natural Sciences. He is also a member of the boards of BioHouston, the Houston Technology Center , Leadership in Medicine, Inc., and Nanotechnology Foundation of Texas. Dr. Currall has been quoted in the New York Times , Wall Street Journal, The Economist ( UK ), and in USA Today .

Dr. Currall received his B.A. from Baylor University , M.Sc from the London School of Economics and Political Science and his Ph.D. from Cornell University.

Edward Djerejian is the Founding Director of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University. He served Presidents G.H. Bush and Clinton as Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, and Presidents Reagan and G.H. Bush as U.S. Ambassador to the Syrian Arab Republic. He served President Clinton as U.S. Ambassador to Israel before completing his foreign service career in 1994. He also served President Reagan as Special Assistant and Deputy Press Secretary for Foreign Affairs. He has been awarded the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, the Department of State's Distinguished Honor Award, and numerous other honors including the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and the Anti-Defamation League's Moral Statesman Award.


Rebecca Dresser is the Daniel Noyes Kirby Professor of Law and Professor of Ethics in Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis and a member of the President's Council on Bioethics. Since 1983, she has taught medical and law students about legal and ethical issues in end-of-life care, biomedical research, genetics, assisted reproduction, and related topics. Before coming to Washington University, she taught at Baylor College of Medicine and Case Western Reserve University. She was also a National Institute of Mental Health Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Wisconsin, a Bigelow Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School, a Visiting Research Scholar at the University of Tokyo, and a Fellow in Ethics and the Professions at Harvard University. She served as a member of the Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and as the Legal Consultant to the Committee on Bioethics of the American Academy of Pediatrics. In addition, she is a Fellow of the Hastings Center and is one of the "At Law" columnists for the Hastings Center Report, the oldest and most widely read U.S. bioethics journal. She serves on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Bioethics and IRB: Ethics and Human Research.

Professor Dresser received her B.A. and M.S. from Indiana University-Bloomington and her J.D. from Harvard University.


Gregory Glover, M.D. a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Ropes & Gray, is a licensed physician and registered patent attorney with experience in food and drug law, intellectual property law, and technology licensing. Dr. Glover previously served as co-coordinator of the Life Sciences Practice of Ropes & Gray, which focuses on representing companies that develop and manufacture pharmaceutical and biotechnology products, medical devices, and other equipment for healthcare, veterinary, agricultural, consumer products, and industrial applications, as well as entities that provide money or resources to life sciences companies, such as banks, investment firms, institutional and individual investors, and underwriters.

Dr. Glover received an A.B., magna cum laude, in biochemical sciences from Harvard College in 1981 and a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1986. Following law school, he completed medical school at Duke University in 1987, and served as an intern in Internal Medicine at New England Deaconess Hospital in Boston.


Steven A. Goldman, M.D., Ph.D. is Professor and Chief of the Division of Cell and Gene Therapy, as well as Attending Neurologist and Dean Zutes Chair in the Aging Brain, in the Department of Neurology at the University of Rochester Medical Center. A world leader in neural stem cell biology, Dr. Goldman's group has reported the successful use of human neural stem and precursor cells in several animal models of disease that include pediatic myelin diseases, spinal cord injury, and Huntington's Disease. His current focus is on defining molecules involved in determining the rate of neural progenitor cells, and using that information to induce endogenous stem cells to mediate tissue repair. Dr. Goldman has published over 100 papers in journals that include Nature Medicine, Nature Neuroscience, the Journal of Neuroscience, Neuron, Nature Biotechnology, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, among others.

Dr. Goldman received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, his Ph.D. from The Rockefeller University, and his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College.


Lawrence S.B. Goldstein, Ph.D. is Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine and an Investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Prior to arriving at UCSD School of Medicine, Dr. Goldstein was Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor at Harvard University in the Department of Cellular and Developmental Biology. He has been awarded a Senior Scholar Award from the Ellison Medical Foundation, an American Cancer Society Faculty Research Award, and the Loeb Chair in Natural Science. Dr. Goldstein’s research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms of intracellular movement in neurons and the role of transport dysfunction in neurodegenerative diseases. His lab has recently discovered important relationships between transport processes and diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s.

In addition to this, Dr. Goldstein has had an active role in National Science Policy through serving on public science committees, writing and speaking about science issues, and testifying in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate about NIH funding and stem cell research. Dr. Goldstein received his B.A. degree in biology and genetics from UCSD and his Ph.D. degree in genetics from the University of Washington, Seattle. He did postdoctoral research at the University of Colorado at Boulder and MIT.


Rome J. Hartman has been a Producer for CBS News for the past 21 years, including a position as the White House Producer for CBS News from 1986-89 and the Washington Senior Producer for the CBS Evening News from 1989-91. Currently, he is a Producer for 60 Minutes. During the past 13 years at 60 Minutes, Rome Hartman has produced 100 segments for the show, including stories in India, Russia, Iraq, Israel, Greece, Africa, and throughout the United States. His segments have won two Emmys and a Robert F. Kennedy journalism award and include First Lady Laura Bush’s first interview after 9-11, Al Gore's announcement in 2002 that he would not run for president in 2004, and the exclusive first interview with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on the day of Saddam Hussein’s capture. Mr. Hartman received his B.A. in political science from Duke University in 1977.


Vivian Ho, Ph.D. Vivian Ho holds the Baker Institute Chair in Health Economics at Rice University and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine. She is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at Rice University.

Dr. Ho began her career as a health economist as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at McGill University. She has served on the faculty in the business school at Washington University, where she received a Faculty Fellow’s Award from the John M. Olin Foundation in New York. Most recently, she was an Associate Professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Alabama Birmingham. Dr. Ho has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles in national and international clinical and social science journals and is currently comparing the effects of market competition versus centralization of care in cancer surgery and cardiac care. Dr. Ho serves on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Center for Health Statistics and on the NIH Health Services, Outcomes and Delivery study section. She is also a founding board member of the American Society for Health Economists. Dr. Ho received her B.A. from Harvard University, a Graduate Diploma in Economics from the Australian National University, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.


Neal Lane, Ph.D. is the Edward W. and Hermena Hancock Kelly University Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Rice University, and Senior Fellow for Science and Technology at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. Prior to returning to Rice University, Dr. Lane served in the Federal government as Assistant to the President for Science and Technology and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, from August 1998 to January 2001, and as Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and member (ex officio) of the National Science Board, from October 1993 to August 1998. Before his post with NSF, Dr. Lane was Provost and Professor of Physics at Rice University in Houston, Texas, a position he had held since 1986. He first came to Rice in 1966, when he joined the Department of Physics as an assistant professor. In 1972, he became Professor of Physics and Space Physics and Astronomy. He left Rice from mid-1984 to 1986 to serve as Chancellor of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. In addition, from 1979 to 1980, while on leave from Rice, he worked at the NSF as Director of the Division of Physics.

Dr. Lane received his Ph.D., M.S. and B.S. in physics from the Oklahoma University.


Suzi Leather is Chair of the Human Fretilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) in the UK, which regulates fertility treatment and embryo experimentation in the UK. Educated in political science at Exeter University and qualified in probation and social work areas, Ms. Leather has worked at regional, national, and European levels on food, health, and consumer issues. She helped start one of the first bioethics courses in the university sector and was a member of the Royal Society’s Inquiry into Infectious Diseases of Livestock. She has chaired the NHS Trust and Healthy Living Centre and was the founder deputy chair of the Food Standards Agency.

She is a member of the Labour Party, the Christian Socialist Movement, the National Heart Forum, the Child Poverty Action Group, the Organophosphate Information Network, Chancellor’s Advisory Council (University of Exeter), and the External Advisory Group of the Glasgow Centre for Population Health.


David Leebron began his service as President of Rice University this past June. He came from Columbia University, where he was Dean of the School of Law and the Lucy G. Moses Professor of Law. Prior to joining Columbia as a professor in 1989, Leebron was Professor of Law and Director of the International Legal Studies Program at New York University School of Law. He has also been a visiting fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and Comparative Law in Hamburg, Germany and the Jean Monnet Visiting Professor at Bielefeld University in Germany. Leebron has taught and published in several areas of law, including international trade, foreign investment, corporate finance and torts, and is the co-author of a textbook on human rights. Leebron earned a BA degree from Harvard College and his J.D., from Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review. He has served on the Board of Directors of the American Law Deans Association, the Standards Committee of the American Bar Association, the nominating committee of the American Association of Law Schools, the Editorial Board of Foundation Press, and the Board or Directors of Imax Corporation.

Mary Anderlik Majumder, J.D., Ph.D. is an assistant professor of medicine with the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine. She received her A.B., magna cum laude, from Bryn Mawr College in 1985 and her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1989. Following law school, she spent three years as an associate in the Banking and Commercial Transactions Group in the Chicago office of Sidley & Austin. In 1997, she received her Ph.D. in ethics with a specialization in biomedical ethics from the Department of Religious Studies at Rice University. Thereafter she held a one-year post-doctoral fellowship in clinical ethics at The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Immediately prior to joining the Center, she spent four years working with Mark Rothstein, first as a researcher with the Health Law and Policy Institute at the University of Houston Law Center, and later at the Institute for Bioethics, Health Policy and Law at the University of Louisville School of Medicine.

Dr. Majumder's book, The Ethics of Managed Care: A Pragmatic Approach, was published by Indiana University Press in 2001. Her current research interests include research with human biological materials, commmerce and science, the ethical and social implications of pharmacogenomics, and ethics an the organization of health care.


Steven Minger, Ph.D. is Lecturer and Director of the Stem Cell Laboratory at King’s College London. He first pursued research in neural stem cell biology as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, San Diego. After additional post-doctoral work at the University of Kentucky, he was appointed an Assistant Professor in Neurology at The University of Kentucky Medical School in 1995. He then moved his research program to Guy’s Hospital in 1996 and was appointed Lecturer in Biomedical Sciences at King’s College London in 1998. In 2002, Dr. Minger was awarded one of the first two licenses granted by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for the derivation of human embryonic stem cells, and his group generated the first human embryonic stem cell line in the UK.

Dr. Minger’s laboratory is primarily interested in the generation of enriched populations of tissue-specific cell types from pluripotent embryonic stem cells for use in cellular replacement strategies for treating human diseases. He received his BA in Psychology from the University of Minnesota and his PhD in Pathology (Neurosciences) from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.


Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D. holds the John S. Dunn Distinguished Chair in Physiology and Medicine and is Chairman of the Department of Integrative Biology and Pharmacology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. He is also the Director of the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine. In 1998, Dr. Murad was co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work concerning nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system. Prior to coming to Houston, he was the president and CEO of Molecular Geriatrics Corporation and the Vice President for Research and Development at Abbott Laboratories. He also served as Professor in the departments of Internal Medicine and Pharmacology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and Stanford University and as Chairman of the National Institutes of Health, NIDDK Board of Scientific Counselors. In addition, he was the Director of the Clinical Research Center at University of Virginia School of Medicine and Chief of Medicine at Palo Alto Veterans Administration Medical Center .

Dr. Murad attended DePauw University and received his M.D. and Ph.D. from Western Reserve University School of Medicine.


Matthew Nisbet, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication at Ohio State University. Dr. Nisbet specializes in political communication with additional research and teaching expertise in public opinion, media sociology, and science communication. Part of his current research focuses on the public dimensions of science and technology-related controversies, applying a theoretical framework that helps us understand how these controversies emerge and develop across policy, opinion, and media arenas. Other research focuses on the ways in which social interactions and media use shape public opinion and various forms of political behavior. He has a particular interest in how these communication processes are closely linked to an individual's community context, examples including the church, the workplace, or the volunteer group.

Dr. Nisbet received his bachelor’s degree in Government at Dartmouth College and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Communication at Cornell University.


Thomas Okarma, M.D., Ph.D. is CEO and President of Geron Corporation, a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing therapeutic and diagnostic products for cancer based on its telomerase technology, and cell-based therapeutics using its human embryonic stem cell technology. He is also a director of Geron Bio-Med Limited, a United Kingdom company. Prior to his position at Geron, he was an assistant professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and subsequently founder and chairman-CEO of Applied Immune Sciences (AIS), a cell and gene therapy company. After Rhone-Poulenc Rorer (RPR) acquired AIS, Dr. Okarma served there as senior Vice President, until joining Geron Corp. in 1997. At Geron he held the positions of Vice President of Cell Therapies (1997) and Vice President of Research and Development (1998).

Dr. Okarma is the author of over 50 publications on cell and gene therapy and is an inventor of numerous patents in the field. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College and his M.D. and Ph.D. from Stanford University.


Lord Naren Patel, M.D. is Chair of the United Kingdom Stem Cell Steering Committee which overseas and monitors the work of United Kingdom stem cell bank and human embryonic stem cell research. As a member of the House of Lords (United Kingdom upper chamber of Parliament) he was involved in the debates leading up to the legislation of human embryonic stem cell research. He has been a Professor and Consultant in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Dundee and is now Professor Emeritus Obstetrics and Gynaecology. His research interests and publications have been in the area of high risk pregnancy which was his main clinical interest. He is past President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges of Scotland and of the United Kingdom and Chairman of the Specialist Training Authority in Medicine of the United Kingdom. He has until recently also chaired the Medical Research Council Advisory Committee on scientific advances in genetics and is currently also Chairman of the Health Quality Improvement, Scotland; an independent authority reporting to the Scottish Parliament for all aspects of health care in Scotland. He has previously been officer of the International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Lord Patel is also a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and The Royal Society of Edinburgh. Lord Patel has been awarded honorary degrees and fellowships from universities and colleges in the United Kingdom and overseas in medicine, science and law. He is a graduate of the University of St. Andrews and did his postgraduate training in medicine at the University of Dundee, United Kingdom. For a year he worked as Assistant Professor at the University of Gainesville in Florida and carried out research mostly in intrauterine growth retardation.

He was awarded a Knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in 1997 and appointed to the House of Lords in the Queen's New Year's Honours List in 1999.


Professor Dame Julia M. Polak, M.D. is Professor of Endocrine Pathology at Imperial College London, where she studies tissue engineering in the Division of Investigative Science. She is the founder and director of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Center there and her work centers on finding ways to grow lung and bone tissue to provide alternates to transplantation. The leader in her field, Professor Polak is Editor of the Tissue Engineering journal and advisor to both the MRC Stem Cell Bank Liaison and the Science and Parliament Committees. For her services to medicine, she was created Dame Commander and her work has been recognized by the Society for Endocrinology, the International Academy of Pathology and Association of Clinical Pathologists.

In 1995, Dame Polak had a double heart and lung transplant, which spurred her interest and dedication to medicine, and inspired her to begin the Centre at Imperial College. She graduated from the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina and obtained her postgraduate training in the UK at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School at the Hammersmith Hospital.


John A. Robertson is the Vinson and Elkins Chair at The University of Texas School of Law at Austin . He served as professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School and as the Russell Sage Fellow in Law and Social Science at Harvard Law School. Mr. Robertson has written and lectured widely on law and bioethical issues and is the author of two books in bioethics-- The Rights of the Critically Ill and Children of Choice: Freedom and the New Reproductive Technologies . In 1984, he testified before the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee of Science and Technology on the “Legal Aspects of Human Embryo Transfer.” He has served as a member of the National Institutes of Health panel on Fetal Tissue Transplantation Research and as a member of the Department of Health and Human Services Task Force on Organ Transplantation. Currently, he serves as the Chair of the Ethics Committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.

Mr. Robertson received his B.A. from Dartmouth College and his J.D. from Harvard Law School .


Terry Shepard is the Vice President of Public Affairs for Rice University . His responsibilities include setting university policy and strategy on public affairs, supporting and advising the president, serving as the university's chief spokesman, and overseeing news and media relations, government and community relations, minority community affairs, and publications. He is a member of the Higher Education Roundtable (Lamplighters) and the Association of American Universities Public Affairs steering committee. He is a past member of the Consortium on Financing Higher Education's Public Issues Committee and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education's National Public Issues Task Force and Commission on Alumni Relations. Prior to working at Rice, he spent eight years at Stanford University where he was the Director of the News Service, the Director of University Communications, and Assistant to the President. Before that, he was deputy associate chancellor for public affairs and director of the news bureau at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His extensive journalistic experience includes terms as assistant foreign news editor and Sunday news editor for the Los Angeles Times and writing and editing positions at the Milwaukee Journal .

Mr. Shepard received his B.S. and M.S. in journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Bernard Siegel is the founder and Executive Director of the Genetics Policy Institute (GPI) based in Coral Gables, Florida. He received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Miami.  In 2003, he traded his 30-year courtroom career to found the Genetics Policy Institute dedicated to establishing an international legal framework to advance scientific research for cures. GPI opposes reproductive cloning. It supports policies to advance and regulate nuclear transfer and endorses the funding of embryonic stem cell research.

In 2004, GPI staged the Science Conference: “Human Cloning Issues in all its aspects” for the United Nations, bringing together a dozen stem cell scientists from 4 continents; the First International Stem Cell Action Conference in Berkeley, California; “Stem CellAwareness Day: Rally for Cures” with Janet Reno at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis and a patients’ press conference and briefing for the UN, cosponsored with the Coalition for Advancement of Medical Research.


Debora Spar, Ph.D. is Spangler Family Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where she works on issues of business-government relations and the political environment of international commerce. Dr. Spar’s current research focuses on foreign trade and investment, examining how firms compete in foreign markets and how government policies shape and constrain their opinions. She is particularly interested in information-based industries such as media, entertainment, and biotechnology; and has published a book that explores the political evolution of cyberspace. Her current research examines the politics of reproductive science, analyzing how the "baby business" has developed and how commerce, politics and technology are likely to interact in and affect this market. Other projects examine the political drivers of foreign direct investment and the impact of investment on human rights and labor standards.

At Harvard, Dr. Spar is the Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Recruiting and teaches courses on the politics of international business, comparative capitalism, and economic development. She is also Chair of Making Markets Work, an executive education program devoted to public and private sector leaders in Africa, and teaches and consults for a number of multinational corporations, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations.

Dr. Spar is the author of numerous publications in academic and public policy journals. Her latest book, Ruling the Waves: Cycles of Discovery, Chaos, and Wealth from the Compass to the Internet was published by Harcourt in September 2001. She is also author of The Cooperative Edge: The Internal Politics of International Cartels and co-author with Raymond Vernon of Beyond Globalism: Remaking American Foreign Economic Policy.


Peter Van Etten is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International. In that capacity, he is responsible for managing the world's largest charitable funder and advocate of research leading to a cure of juvenile (type 1) diabetes and its complications.

Mr. Van Etten, who joined JDRF in January of 2000, has a distinguished and varied background in health care administration and finance. He was previously President and Chief Executive Officer of UCSF Stanford Health Care, which included the hospitals, practice plans, and clinics of Stanford University Medical Center, Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, and UCSF Medical Center. Prior to the establishment of UCSF Stanford Health Care, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Stanford Medical Center, and as Chief Financial Officer of Stanford University.

Mr. Van Etten is a graduate of Columbia University, and of Harvard University's Graduate School of Business.

James T. Willerson, M.D. is President and the Edward Randall III Chair in Internal Medicine of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and Chief of Cardiology at St. Luke's Hospital and the Texas Heart Institute. Dr. Willerson is also President-Elect and Medical Director of the Texas Heart Institute. He is an internationally distinguished cardiologist, research scientist, and educator, and continues an active medical practice in addition to his other duties. Dr. Willerson served on the faculty at UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas before coming to Houston as chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Medical School, where he has helped create the Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases. A prolific writer, Dr. Willerson has edited and co-edited 19 textbooks and published over 750 scientific articles, as well as serving as Editor-in-Chief of Circulation. In addition to this, Dr. Willerson has been one of the leaders of the Disaster Relief and Emergency Medical Services (DREAMS) Project, a U.S. Army-funded program that has created solutions for cardiovascular, trauma and bio-terrorism emergencies.

Dr. Willerson received his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas, graduated from Baylor College of Medicine, and completed his residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.


Mary Woolley is the President of Research!America, the nation’s largest non-profit, membership supported grassroots public education and advocacy organization committed to making health-related research a much higher national priority. Under her leadership, Research!America’s membership has more than quadrupled, and now represents over 100 million Americans. Research!America is widely recognized for its leadership role in the movement to double the budget of the National Institutes of Health in five years, and for its work in public opinion polling. Ms. Woolley is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine and serves on its Health Sciences Policy Board. She is also a member of the Visiting Committee of the Harvard School of Public Health, the Board of Directors of the Research Institute of the National Children’s Medical Center, and is a Founding Member of the Board of Associates of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. Ms. Woolley is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has served as President of the Association of Independent Research Institutes (AIRI), as CEO of the Medical Research Institute of San Francisco, as editor of the Journal of the Society of Research Administrators, as reviewer for the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation, and as a consultant to several research organizations. .

Ms. Woolley received a B.S. from Stanford University, a Master of Arts from San Francisco State University, and studied advanced management at the University of California, Berkeley.




Rice University UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center UT Health Science Center Houston Baylor College of Medicine James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy UT M.D. Anderson Cancer Center UT Health Science Center Houston Baylor College of Medicine