ELSI Personal Genomics Seminar Series

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Dr. Jonathan Kahn, Keynote speaker

Biography

Holding a PhD in History from Cornell University and a JD from Boalt Hall School of Law, Dr. Jonathan Kahn is a Professor of Law at Hamline University School of Law. He writes on issues in history, politics, and law and specializes in biotechnology's implications for our ideas of identity, rights, and citizenship. Emerging from new ways of thinking about individuals and their relation to society, "genetic citizenship" has become a critical category for assessing and assigning legal rights, forming important relationships among biotechnology, constitutional law, and intellectual property. In 2007, he received a grant from National Human Genome Research Institute's (NHGRI) Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) Research Program to support a two year project in which he is exploring the ethical and legal ramifications of the increasing use of racial and ethnic categories in the context of gene patenting and drug development.

Dr. Kahn is a nationally recognized expert on this topic. His scholarly research and writing related to the legal and ethical implications of how racial categories are produced and disseminated in the course of drug development are widely published, including the article "Race in a Bottle" in the August 2007 issue of Scientific American. The article pertains to BiDil, the first medication ever approved by the FDA to be targeted to a specific racial group. An exhibit quoting Dr. Kahn on this topic also is part of the nationally touring "RACE" exhibit, most recently on display at the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Selected Publications

1. Ellison, G. T. H., Kaufman J. S., Head, R. F., Martin P. A., & Kahn, J. D. (2008). Flaws in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's rationale for supporting the development and approval of BiDil as a treatment for heart failure only in black patients. Law, Medicine & Ethics. 36(3), 449-457.
2. Bolnick, D. A., Fullwiley, D., Duster, T., Cooper, R. S., Fujimura, J. H., Kahn, J., et al. (2007). The science and business of genetic ancestry testing. Science. 318(5849), 399-400.

Ms. Liz Barry

Biography

As the chief operating officer of the Life Sciences Institute, Ms. Barry's responsibilities include establishing and overseeing administration and operations and working closely with the Director in planning, policy formation, recruitment and development. She developed and co-teaches “The Business of Biology” a graduate course at the Ross School of Business. Ms. Barry's areas of expertise include: administration, finance and budgeting, intellectual property and technology transfer, and scientific recruiting and hiring. She has authored papers and given recent presentations on scientific authorship, stem cell research policy and the regulation of dual-use technology. Prior to her current position, Ms. Barry served as the Associate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel in the Office of the Vice President and General Counsel at the University of Michigan. She was the primary in-house lawyer on the two lawsuits challenging the University’s affirmative action policies until April, 2002 (when she joined the LSI) and she also oversaw legal services for the University’s technology transfer function.

Dr. Kevin Gaines

Biography

Professor Gaines is a jointly-appointed Professor in History and the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies at UM. He is the Director of the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies and is currently the President of the American Studies Association. His research investigates U.S. and African American intellectual and cultural history; race and gender politics in post-World War II America; African American cultural production; and the global dimensions of U.S. struggles over the meaning of citizenship. He is the author of Uplifting the Race: Black Leadership, Politics and Culture During the Twentieth Century (UNC Press, 1996) and American Africans in Ghana: Black Expatriates in the Civil Rights Era (UNC Press, 2006).

Selected Publications

1. Gaines, K. (2006). American Africans in Ghana: Black Expatriates and the Civil Rights Era. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
2. Gaines, K. (1996). Uplifting the Race: Black Leadership, Politics, and Culture in the Twentieth Century. Chapel Hill: North Carolina Press.

Dr. Jonathan Metzl

Biography

Jonathan M. Metzl, MD, PhD, is a psychiatrist who also has a Ph.D. in American Studies. He is Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Women's Studies and Director of Program in Culture, Health, and Medicine. In this capacity he works as a Senior Attending Physician in the adult psychiatric clinics, and teaches courses in the areas of history of psychiatry, gender, and health at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He is author of Prozac on the Couch: Prescribing Gender in the Era of Wonder Drugs (Duke University Press, 2003), and of The Protest Psychosis: How Schizophrenia Became a Black Disease (Beacon Press, forthcoming). His work has appeared in journals including the Lancet, American Journal of Psychiatry, American Harvard Review of Psychiatry, Gender and History, and SIGNS: The Journal of Women, Culture, and Society.

Selected Publications

1. Metzl, J. M. (2003). Prozac on the Couch: Prescribing Gender in the Era of Wonder Drugs. Durham: Duke University Press.
2. Metzl, J. M., & Herzig, R. (2007). Medicalization in the 21st Century. Lancet. 369, 697-98.