Media Advisory

Francis Collins, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health, and Ruth Faden, executive director of the Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute at Johns Hopkins, will take part in a panel discussion "On the Edge: Evolving Biotechnology, A Question of Ethics," at 8 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 25, 2002, at The Johns Hopkins University.

The panel discussion is part of the 2002 Milton S. Eisenhower Symposium, "Changing Times: Who are We? An Introspective Look at American Identity in the 21st Century," a student-run series examining the influence of various political, social and scientific advances on the collective American identity. The panel discussion will begin at 8 p.m. in the Glass Pavilion on the Homewood campus, 3400 N. Charles St. in Baltimore. The event is free and open to the public.

Collins is a member of a team of scientists that fast-tracked a project aimed at mapping and sequencing the human genome. A working draft of the human genome sequence was announced in June 2000, an initial analysis was published in February 2001, and the completed sequence is anticipated this spring. From the outset, the project has run ahead of schedule and under budget, and all data has been made immediately available to the scientific community without restrictions on access or use. Collins' research has led to the identification of genes responsible for cystic fibrosis, neurofibromatosis, and Huntington's disease. Collins has also won numerous national and international awards for his accomplishments in biomedical research, and was elected to the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences.

Faden is executive director of the Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute at The Johns Hopkins University and a senior research scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine, a fellow of the Hastings Institute Center and the American Psychological Association. She chaired the President's Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments and has served on several other national advisory committees and commissions. Faden has also authored and edited several noteworthy publications on biomedical ethics and health policy, including: A History and Theory of Informed Consent; AIDS, Women and the Next Generation; and HIV, AIDS and Childbearing: Public Policy, Private Lives.

For more information, call (410) 516-7683, visit the MSE Symposium Web site at www.jhu.edu/mse or send an e-mail message to mse@jhu.edu.

When: 8 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 25, 2002
Where: Glass Pavilion, 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore