Stem Cells: Saving Lives or Crossing Lines
Avenues for Advancement

James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy
Carnegie Institution of Washington

October 24, 2006

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Speaker Biographies

Frederick Anderson is a partner in the Washington office of the law firm of McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP. His practice involves strategic corporate counseling, regulatory affairs, litigation, and crisis management, especially in the fields of the environment, energy, natural resources, and science and technology. He serves as a member of the executive committee of the National Academy of Science’s Committee on Science, Technology & Law and is a member of its Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate. He was a member of the Academy’s Commission on Life Sciences and its Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology. He filed a brief amici curiae in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of 58 Nobel Laureates and others supporting the National Academy of Sciences’ efforts to overturn an unfavorable lower court opinion applying the Federal Advisory Committee Act to Academy committees. He is a member of several nonprofit boards and is chairman of the boards of the Center for International Environmental Law and the Institute for Governance and Sustainability. He is a former dean of the law school at American University, and he was the first full-time president of the Environmental Law Institute. He received a BA (history of science) from the University of North Carolina, a JD from Harvard Law School, and a BA in jurisprudence from Oxford University.

William R. Brinkley, PhD, is senior vice president for graduate sciences and dean of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston. 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.  He received his PhD from Iowa State University in 1964 and served as a NIH postdoctoral trainee at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and as assistant and associate professor of biology until 1972, when he accepted a position as professor and director of Cell Biology in the Department of Human Biological Chemistry at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. In 1976, he moved to Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, as the director of the Division of Cell Structure and Function in the Department of Cell Biology. In 1985, he moved from Texas to become chairman 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 College of Medicine in his present position in 1991. Brinkley is the recipient of a Merit Award from the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute, where he has received continuous funding for over 35 years for his research on cell division and genomic instability in tumor cells.

Timothy Caulfield has been research director of the Health Law Institute at the University of Alberta, since 1993. In 2001 he received a Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy. He is also a professor in the faculty of law and the faculty of medicine and dentistry. Over the past several years, he has been involved in a variety of interdisciplinary research endeavours that have allowed him to publish over 100 articles and book chapters. He is the recipient of an Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research Health Research Scholarship titled “Regulating the ‘Genetic Revolution;’” a Genome Canada project on the regulation of genomic technologies, a Canadian Institutes of Health Research project on legal foundations for a national disease control surveillance agency in Canada, and is the theme leader in the Stem Cell Network and the Advanced Foods and Materials Network (National Centres of Excellence). He has been a visiting scholar at the Hasting Center for Bioethics in New York and the Houston Law School, a visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Program in Genomics, Ethics and Society and is a Senior Fellow with the Einstein Institute for Science, Health and the Courts. He became a member of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and, in November 2000, was awarded the University of Alberta’s Martha Cook Piper Research Prize. Caulfield is and has been involved with a number of national policy and research ethics committees, including the Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee, Genome Canada’s Science Advisory Committee, and the Royal Society of Canada’s Expert Panel on the Future of Food Biotechnology (2001). He currently chairs a number of committees including the Canadian Blood Services Ethics Committee and the Institute of Genetics Ethical, Legal and Social Issues Committee, Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He also serves on a number of research ethics boards, is an editor of the Health Law Journal and the Health Law Review, teaches law and medicine in the faculty of law, and provides health law lectures for other faculties.

Mark S. Frankel, PhD, is director of the Scientific Freedom, Responsibility and Law Program at the American Association for the Advancement of Science(AAAS), where he develops and manages the Association’s activities related to the ethical and legal implications of science and technology. He is staff officer for two AAAS committees—the Committee on Scientific Freedom and Responsibility and the AAAS-American Bar Association National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists. He has directed AAAS projects on research integrity and scientific misconduct, the use of scientific and technical information in the courts, the ethical and legal implications of genetic testing, a study of the uses of anonymity on the Internet, a Congressional Seminar Series on the social implications of the Human Genome Project, the ethical, legal, and policy implications of human inheritable genetic modification, the ethical, religious and policy implications of human stem cell research, the development of educational materials on the use of animals in research, the ethical and legal dimensions of Internet research involving human subjects, the impacts of post-9/11 national security policies on science, the design of materials examining the ethical issues associated with behavioral genetics, and the impact of advances in neuroscience on the legal system. Frankel serves on several journal editorial boards, has authored or edited 17 AAAS monographs, is editor of the association’s quarterly publication, Professional Ethics Report, and is a fellow of AAAS. He is co-author of the AAAS study (1999), Stem Cell Research and Applications: Monitoring the Frontiers of Biomedical Research, the first report issued by a scientific society on the policy implications of human stem cell research.

Michael Gazzaniga, PhD, is the director of the Sage Center for the Study of Mind at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 1964 he received a PhD in psychobiology from the California Institute of Technology, where he worked under the guidance of Roger Sperry, with the primary responsibility for initiating human split-brain research.  In his subsequent work he has made important advances in our understanding of functional lateralization in the brain and how the cerebral hemispheres communicate with one another. He has published many books accessible to a lay audience, such as The Social Brain, Mind Matters, and Nature’s Mind. These, along with his participation in the public television specials The Brain and The Mind, have been instrumental in making information about brain function generally accessible to the public. The Cognitive Neurosciences III, from MIT Press, features the work of nearly 200 scientists in 94 chapters. It is the third edition of a work recognized as the sourcebook for the field. Gazzaniga’s long and distinguished teaching and mentoring career has included beginning and developing centers for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of California-Davis and at Dartmouth, supervising the work and encouraging the careers of many young scientists, and founding the Neuroscience Institute and the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, of which he is the editor-in-chief emeritus. Gazzaniga is also prominent as an advisor to various institutes involved in brain research, and is a member of the President’s Council on Bioethics. His most recent book is The Ethical Brain.

Rosario Isasi is a postdoctoral fellow for the Centre de Recherche en Droit Public (CRDP), Université de Montréal. Her research interests intersect public health, ethics, law and science. She has particular expertise in the area of comparative legal and ethical research regarding cloning and stem cell research. Isasi is the academic secretary of the International Stem Cell Forum Ethics Working Party, an affiliated scholar of the Center for Genetics and Society in Oakland, California, and the Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future, Chicago-Kent College of Law, in Chicago, Illinois. She is also a member of the Advisory Board of Global Lawyers and Physicians, a transnational professional association of lawyers and physicians working together to promote human rights and health. Isasi holds her JD from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, where she practiced corporate and health law. She received her MPH from Boston University.

Neal F. Lane, PhD, is the Malcolm Gillis University Professor at Rice University, professor in the department of physics & astronomy, and senior fellow in science and technology policy  at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. Prior to returning to Rice University, 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 (OSTP), 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, Lane was provost and professor of physics at Rice University in Houston, 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.  Lane received his PhD, MS, and BS in physics from the University of Oklahoma.

Bill Leinweber is the executive vice president of Research!America, a national not-for-profit alliance based in Alexandria, Virginia, dedicated to making medical and health research a much higher national priority. Leinweber is responsible for oversight of the organization’s communications, development and advocacy activities.  Before coming to Research!America, Leinweber spent more than 15 years in senior positions advocating for the advancement of medical and health research and public health. During his 11 years with the American Heart Association (AHA), he served as executive director of the Ohio Affiliate and as a senior management consultant and Youth Market Team Leader for the AHA’s National Center.  Following his tenure with the American Heart Association, he served as the founding director of development for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids in Washington, D.C. Leinweber received his MBA from Ohio State University and his undergraduate degree from Marshall University.

Debra J.H. Mathews, PhD, is the assistant director for science programs for the Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute (BBI) at Johns Hopkins University, with a secondary appointment in the Institute of Genetic Medicine.  Mathews earned her BS in Biology from Pennsylvania State University and a PhD in genetics from Case Western Reserve University. Concurrent with her PhD, she earned a master’s degree in bioethics, also from Case. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship in genetics at Johns Hopkins, where she continued her work on human genetic variation and human population history. She also completed the Greenwall Fellowship in Bioethics and Health Policy, which is jointly administered by Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities.  As a Greenwall Fellow, she worked at the Genetics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. As the assistant director for science programs, Mathews is responsible for overseeing the Stem Cell Policy and Ethics program (SCOPE) and the Program in Ethics and Brain Sciences, as well as other BBI initiatives in science policy and ethics related to biomedical research. Her research interests focus on the intersection of science, public policy, and society.

Angela McNab is the chief executive of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA). McNab started her career in the National Health Service (NHS) as a clinician before moving into general health management.  She is a qualified speech and language therapist and psychologist. She held a variety of senior positions in Community and Mental Health Trusts. In 1999, McNab joined the Department of Health to lead the development of the National Sexual Health and HIV Strategy. This gave her the experience of working in a high profile and sensitive field. She returned to the NHS as chief executive of a newly formed North East London Primary Care Trust, leading that organization to achieve the highest performance rating across London at the end of its first year. In 2002, McNab moved into her current role as chief executive of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority and, in 2005, became the first chair of the European Assisted Conception Consortium.

Richard A. Meserve, PhD, became the ninth president of the Carnegie Institution in April 2003, after stepping down as chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).  As Chairman of the NRC, Meserve served as the principal executive officer of the federal agency with responsibility for ensuring the public health and safety in the operation of nuclear power plants and in the usage of nuclear materials. Before joining the NRC, Meserve was a partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm of Covington & Burling, and he now serves as senior of counsel to the firm. With his Harvard law degree, received in 1975, and his PhD in applied physics from Stanford, awarded in 1976, he devoted his legal practice to technical issues arising at the intersection of science, law, and public policy. This work involved nuclear licensing, environmental and toxic tort litigation, and counseling scientific societies and high-tech companies. Early in his career, he served as legal counsel to the president’s science advisor, and was a law clerk to Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court and to Judge Benjamin Kaplan of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. He received his undergraduate degree from Tufts University in 1966.

Maurizio Mori, PhD, teaches bioethics at the University of Turin, Italy. After graduating with a degree in philosophy from the State University of Milano (1974), he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Arizona (Tucson), receiving an MA in philosophy and then a PhD from the University of Milano. In 1985 Mori started a bioethical group working within the Center “Politeia” in Milan.  In 1989 he was a co-founder of the “Consulta di Bioetica,” an association devoted to promote pluralistic bioethics.  Since 1993 he has been the editor of Bioetica. Rivista interdisciplinare, the only Italian journal of bioethics open to ethical pluralism. On April 1, 2006, he was elected president of the Consulta di Bioetica. Mori has written five books (one defending a utilitarian view, two on artificial insemination, one on abortion, and the last one (2002) a textbook). He is the author of more than 250 papers published in Italian in international journals. His major interests are in reproductive issues and in those concerning the end of life. He has written on the history and nature of bioethics, on truth telling, the role of ethics committees, resource allocation, and ethics of transplants. He has also contributed to ethical issues on the topics of the environment and nonhuman animals, as well as to business ethics. 

Norman P. Neureiter, PhD, received a BA in chemistry from the University of Rochester in 1952 and a PhD in organic chemistry from Northwestern University in 1957. He spent a year (19-55-56) as a Fulbright Fellow in the Institute of Organic Chemistry at the University of Munich. In 1957, he joined Humble Oil and Refining (now part of Exxon) in Baytown, Texas, as a research chemist, also teaching German and Russian at the University of Houston. On leave from Humble in 1959, he served as a guide at the U.S. National Exhibition in Moscow, subsequently qualifying as an escort interpreter for the Department of State. In 1963, he joined the International Affairs Office of the U.S. National Science Foundation in Washington and managed the newly established U.S.-Japan Cooperative Science Program.  Entering the U.S. Foreign Service in 1965, he was named Deputy Scientific Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Bonn. In 1967, he was transferred to Warsaw as the first U.S. Scientific Attaché in Eastern Europe with responsibility for Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. Neureiter returned to Washington in 1969 as assistant for international affairs to the President’s Science Advisor in the White House Office of Science and Technology. He left the Government in 1973 and joined Texas Instruments (TI), where he held a number of staff and management positions including manager, east-west business development; manager, TI Europe division; vice president, corporate staff; and vice president of TI Asia, resident in Tokyo, 1989-94.  After retirement from TI in 1996, he worked as a consultant until being appointed in September 2000 as the first Science and Technology Adviser to the U.S. Secretary of State. Finishing the three-year assignment in 2003, he was made a distinguished presidential fellow for international affairs at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In May 2004, he joined the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) as the first director of the new Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy (CSTSP), funded by the MacArthur Foundation.

Frances E. Sharples, PhD, has served as the director of the National Academy of Sciences’ Board on Life Sciences since October 2000. The Board on Life Sciences serves as the National Academies’ focal point for a wide range of technical and policy topics in the life sciences, including bioterrorism, genomics, biodiversity conservation, and key topics in basic biomedical research, such as stem cells.  In 2005, Sharples served as the study director for the preparation of the National Academies’ report Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research. Immediately prior to coming to the Academies, Sharples was a senior policy analyst for the Environment Division of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) from October 1996 to October 2000. Sharples came to OSTP from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where she served in various positions in research and management in the Environmental Sciences Division between 1978 and 1996. Sharples received her BA in Biology from Barnard College (1972) and her MA (1974) and PhD (1978) in zoology from the University of California, Davis. She served as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Environmental Science and Engineering Fellow at the Environmental Protection Agency during the summer of 1981, and was an AAAS Congressional Science and Engineering Fellow in the office of Senator Al Gore in 1984-85. She was a member of the National Institutes of Health’s Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee in the mid-1980s, and was elected a fellow of the AAAS in 1992.

LeRoy Walters, PhD, is the Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. Professor of Christian Ethics at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, and a professor of philosophy at Georgetown. Walters is co-author with Julie Gage Palmer of The Ethics of Human Gene Therapy (Oxford University Press, 1997) and co-editor with Tom L. Beauchamp of an anthology titled Contemporary Issues in Bioethics (6th ed., Wadsworth Publishing Company, 2003).  He is also co-editor with Tamar Joy Kahn and Doris M. Goldstein of the annual Bibliography of Bioethics (31 volumes to date, 1975-present). With Albert R. Jonsen and Robert M. Veatch he co-edited a collection of readings entitled Source Book in Bioethics (Georgetown University Press, 1998). Walters was born in Illinois but raised in Pennsylvania. His elementary school years were spent in Lancaster, in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country.  From 1965 through 1967 Walters studied at the University of Heidelberg and the Free University of Berlin. In 1971 he received his PhD from Yale University, writing his dissertation on the just-war theory. Immediately thereafter he joined André E. Hellegers in the newly established Joseph and Rose Kennedy Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction and Bioethics at Georgetown University. Since 1976 Walters has been engaged with the ethical and public policy questions surrounding recombinant DNA research, human-gene-transfer research, and human embryonic stem cell research. He served three terms on the NIH Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC). From 1993 through 1996 he chaired the committee. In August 2001 Walters had the opportunity to brief President George W. Bush and several of his advisors on human embryonic stem cell research.

Thomas P. Zwaka, MD, PhD, is an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine in the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, where he studies embryonic stem cell biology.  Zwaka received his MD and PhD from the University of Ulm, Germany in 2000. There he worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Pathology, Heinrich-Heine University, and in the section for molecular cardiology in the department of internal medicine at the University of Ulm. He did a fellowship at the University of Ulm, Germany, in molecular cardiology and then at the National Primate Research Center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in cell biology with James Thompson. In 2004, Zwaka then joined the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine. During his career, he has received numerous awards and honors, including the Gillson Longenbaugh Foundation Junior Investigator award and the Lance Armstrong Foundation Junior Investigator Award. He has served as a member of the NIGMS Special Emphasis Panel for human embryonic stem cell research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Zwaka was also one of the founders of the Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine Center at Baylor College of Medicine.

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