ELSI Personal Genomics Seminar Series

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Professor Rebecca Eisenberg

Biography

Rebecca S. Eisenberg is a graduate of Stanford University and Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was articles editor of the California Law Review. Following law school she served as law clerk for Chief Judge Robert F. Peckham on the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and then practiced law as a litigator in San Francisco. She joined the University of Michigan Law School faculty in 1984. Professor Eisenberg regularly teaches courses in patent law, trademark law, FDA law, and runs workshops on intellectual property and student scholarship. She has previously taught courses on torts, legal regulation of science, and legal issues in biopharmaceutical research. She has written and lectured extensively about the role of intellectual property in biopharmaceutical research, publishing in scientific journals as well as law reviews. She spent the 1999-2000 academic year as a visiting professor of law, science and technology at Stanford Law School. She has received grants from the program on Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications of the Human Genome Project from the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Biological and Environmental Research for her work on private appropriation and public dissemination of DNA sequence information. Professor Eisenberg has played an active role in public policy debates concerning the role of intellectual property in biopharmaceutical research. Professor Eisenberg is the Robert and Barbara Luciano Professor of Law.

Selected Publications

1. Eisenberg, R. (2008). Pharma's nonobvious problem. Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 12(2), 375-429.
2. Eisenberg, R. (2008). Noncompliance, nonenforcement, nonproblem? Rethinking the anticommons in biomedical research (Symposium: Patent Law in Persepctive: Institute for Intellectual Property and Information Law). Hous. L. Rev. 45(4), 1059-99.

Dr. Sofia Merajver

Biography

Dr. Merajver is an expert in breast cancer genetics with research interests in the molecular genetics of breast cancer, gene function, cancer risk assessment, international breast cancer research, and prevention. Her laboratory studies aggressive forms of breast cancer, with inflammatory breast cancer being the primary model. She also performs clinical and translational research in breast cancer and is especially well known as an educator and dedicated mentor of postdoctoral and pre-doctoral students and of junior faculty at the University of Michigan Medical School and the School of Public Health and at many institutions worldwide. Dr. Merajver’s laboratory has discovered genetic alterations that contribute to an especially malignant phenotype of breast cancer called inflammatory breast cancer (IBC). They have isolated and characterized two markers specific for inflammatory breast cancer: a novel transforming oncogene RhoC GTPase and a tumor suppressor gene termed WISP3, which is a low affinity IGF-binding protein. The laboratory has embarked on the study of RhoC signaling in single live cells utilizing laser spectroscopic techniques and mathematical modeling. Dr. Merajver and colleagues are studying polymorphisms and mutations in new candidate tumor suppressor genes and their relationship to breast cancer risk in non-BRCA 1/2 families. Dr. Merajver’s career has been characterized by the single-minded pursuit of new knowledge that has human applications.

Selected Publications

1. Soliman, A. S., Lo, A. C., Banerjee, M., Hablas, A., Ismail, K., Seifeldin, I., & Merjaver, S. D. (2009). High proportion of inflammatory breast cancer in the population-based cancer registry of Gharbiah, Egypt. The Breast Journal. (In Press)
2. Dey, S., Soliman, A. S., Hablas, A., Seifeldin, I. A., Ismail, K., Ramadan, M., El-Hamzawy, H., Wilson, M. L., Banerjee, M., Boffetta, P., Harford, J., & Merajver, S. D. (2009). Urban-rural differences in breast cancer incidence by hormone receptor status across 6 years in Egypt. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment. (In Press)

Dr. Shobita Parthasarathy

Biography

Shobita Parthasarathy is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Co-Director of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program. She does research on the politics of science and technology, both in the United States and abroad. Current areas of interest include: comparative and international politics of genetics and biotechnology; the patentability of human biotechnology such as genes and stem cells; regulation of genetic medicine; the roles of patient advocacy groups; and the relationship between science and democracy. She recently published her first book, entitled Building Genetic Medicine: Breast Cancer, Technology, and the Comparative Politics of Health Care (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007), which compares the development of genetic testing for breast cancer in the United States and Britain. Her current research focuses on the politics of patenting biotechnology in the US and Europe, exploring, in comparative perspective, how democratic objectives are interpreted by technical institutions. Primary funding for this project comes from a Scholar's Award from the Science, Technology, and Society Program of the National Science Foundation.

Selected Publications

1. Parthasarathy, S. (2007). Building Genetic Medicine: Breast Cancer, Technology, and the Comparative Politics of Health Care. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
2. Parthasarathy, S. (2005). Architectures of genetic medicine: Comparing genetic testing for breast cancer in the USA and UK. Social Studies of Science. 35(1), 5-40.