Geneticist calls for government investments in scientific research at Baker Institute event

Geneticist calls for government investments in scientific research at Baker Institute event

BY FRANZ BROTZEN
Rice News staff

Pointing to the historical impact of research and development on the U.S. economy, the leader of the effort to map human DNA told an audience at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy that investing in science would help counter the current economic downturn.

Francis Collins, the former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, said “the case is very strong” for such investments because “more than half of the economic growth of this country since World War II has been on the basis of science and technology and innovation.” He called President Barack Obama’s first steps on raising the profile of science “an encouraging start at a difficult time.”

	Francis Collins, the former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, told an audience at the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy that investing in science would help counter the current economic downturn.

Collins participated with Neal Lane, the Malcolm Gillis University Professor and Baker Institute senior fellow in science and technology policy, in the Jan. 21 event titled “Mapping the Human Genome: A Dialogue on Science and Public Life.”

Collins, who is often mentioned as a candidate to head the National Institutes of Health, declined to comment on any pending appointment. But he did say he’s had “the privilege of serving on the Obama transition team since the election.” He described the experience as “intense and inspiring and at times really quite difficult to sort through a mountain of opportunities at the time when the economy is clearly so severely in trouble.”

Michael Lindsay, assistant professor of sociology and associate director of Rice’s Center on Race, Religion and Urban Life, moderated the event. He asked Collins and Lane about the ethical dimensions of scientific research. Both said they opposed reproductive human cloning. Collins expressed concerns about safety. “Every cloned animal, including Dolly, has been abnormal in some way,” he said. He also expressed concerns about whether the clone would come from the mother, father or a third party and the broader issue of leaving procreation to nature — or in “the realm of God’s work.” Lane mentioned an incident during his time as former President Bill Clinton’s science adviser when a debate arose over the possibility of a bovine-human embryo. There would be no “cowman,” Lane recalled Clinton aide Paul Begala declaring. Nevertheless, Lane concluded such questions will pose difficult ethical choices in the future.

Collins also underscored the “blurry line” on ethics when he discussed enhancements using biotechnology. Some, like vaccinations against childhood diseases, are not only permitted, they are required. Other innovations are not so clear-cut. Collins pointed to DNA enhancements that could help reduce obesity. But the same methodology could also be used to shape fashion models — a less universally accepted outcome. He also touched on the issue of gender selection, with some parents wishing for a better male-female balance in their families and other parents wanting only one gender.

Asked about the social and moral implications of scientific innovations, Collins said, “When it comes to a difficult ethical decision about whether science ought to go in this direction or that direction, there have to be other people at the table.” Still, “scientists have to play a role,” he added, “of engaging with that process very vigorously and explaining the facts of the matter, because otherwise the ethical conversation may go way over here into an area of application that’s completely unfeasible and miss the one over here that actually might happen next month.”
 
Among the major scientific issues he sees coming to the fore in the next 10 years, Collins named personalized medicine, energy issues, including alternative fuels and climate change, and global health. Lane said that a greater understanding of biology may lead to a new understanding of the nature of life.

“The pace at which medical research is advancing, and many other fields as well, and the coming together of the physical sciences (nanotechnology and biology),” Lane said, “are going to present society with challenges we probably can’t even imagine today — and these ethical challenges might come within a couple of years.”