Science in the Interests of Justice

Professor Alta Charo

University of Wisconsin–Madison, US

R Alta Charo, JD, is the Warren P Knowles professor emerita of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW) and since 2020 works as an independent consultant to industry and government on biotechnology ethics, regulation and policy. She also serves as co-chair of the safety, security, sustainability and social responsibility unit of BioMADE, a US-based consortium of biotechnology companies and academic centers. Prior to her arrival at UW in 1989, Ms Charo served as associate director of the Legislative Drafting Research Fund of Columbia University, Fulbright lecturer in American law at the Sorbonne in Paris, legal analyst at the congressional Office of Technology Assessment, and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) diplomacy fellow at the US Agency for International Development. Also, in government, she was a member of President Clinton’s National Bioethics Advisory Commission and a senior policy advisor in the FDA’s Office of the Commissioner under the Obama administration. At the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Ms Charo has served on numerous committees, the committee that issued the 2004 report ‘Biotechnology Research in the Age of Terrorism’; the committee on emerging science, technology and innovation; and the committees on emerging infectious diseases and COVID-19 vaccine and monoclonal antibody allocation frameworks. She co-chaired the National Academies committee that wrote guidelines for embryonic stem cell research and the committee that developed recommendations for US policy and global principles for human genome editing research and clinical trials. Ms Charo recently completed service on the World Health Organization’s committee on global governance of genome editing. She is an elected member of the US National Academy of Medicine and an elected Fellow of the AAAS and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr Robin Lovell-Badge FMedSci FRS

Principal Group Leader, Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics, The Francis Crick Institute

Robin Lovell-Badge obtained his PhD at University College London in 1978 and was a postdoc in Cambridge, both with Martin Evans. After an EMBO fellowship in Paris he established his independent laboratory in 1982 at the MRC Mammalian Development Unit, UCL, directed by Anne McLaren. In 1988 he moved to the MRC National Institute for Medical Research, becoming Head of the Division of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics in 1993. The NIMR was incorporated into the Francis Crick Institute in April 2015. In 1990, his lab discovered Sry, the Y-linked sex determining gene and the first members of the Sox gene family. He has had long-standing interests in the biology of stem cells, in how genes work in the context of embryo development, and how decisions of cell fate are made. Major themes of his current work include sex determination, development of the nervous system and pituitary, and the biology of stem cells within these systems. He is also very active in both public engagement and policy work, notably around stem cells, genetics, human embryo and animal research, and in ways science is regulated and disseminated. He chairs the Royal Society’s Genetic Technologies Programme and has been involved in the human genome editing Summit meetings since their inception. He was elected a member of EMBO (1993), a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (1999), the Royal Society (2001), the Royal Society of Biology (2011), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2018). He has received the Louis Jeantet Prize for Medicine (1995), the Amory Prize (1996), the Feldberg Foundation Prize (2008), the Waddington Medal of the British Society for Developmental Biology (2010), the ISSCR Public Service Award (2021), and the Genetics Society Medal (2022). He was awarded a CBE in the 2018 New Year’s Honours List. He is an honorary professor at University College, London and at King’s College, London, and a Special Visiting Professor at the University of Hong Kong.

Professor Barbara Sahakian FMedSci

University of Cambridge, UK

Professor Barbara J Sahakian is based at the University of Cambridge Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Academy of Medical Sciences. Sahakian has an international reputation in the fields of psychopharmacology, neuropsychology, neuropsychiatry, neuroimaging and neuroethics. She has over 450 publications in scientific journals and a Hirsch (h) index of 112. Sahakian co-invented the neuropsychological CANTAB and EMOTICOM computerised tests, the University of Cambridge/PEAK Advanced Training Programme and the Wizard Apprentice Memory Game. She is a member of the WEF on the Future of Neurotechnologies and Brain Science and is on the Clinical Advisory Board of the Human Brain Project. Her policy work includes the UK Government Foresight Project on Mental Capital and Wellbeing, the UK Government Scoping the Future of Neuroscience over the next 10 Years and Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health.

Professor Philip Sabes

University of California, San Francisco, US

Philip Sabes is a neuroscientist, neural engineer and a Professor Emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Philip received his PhD from MIT, focusing on machine learning and models of human motor control, and trained as a neurophysiologist during a postdoc with Richard Andersen at Caltech.

At UCSF, the Sabes Lab combined neurophysiology, computation and behaviour to discover how sensory feedback drives movement control. The lab also developed technologies for Brain Machine Interfacing (BMI), including the first demonstration of real-time artificial sensory feedback delivered via multi-electrode microsimulation and a novel sewing-machine approach to neural interfacing that allows micron-scale, thin-film devices to be individually implanted in the brain.

In 2017, Philip retired from UCSF to help launch Neuralink. While there, the company further developed the sewing machine approach, demonstrating a fully-implanted, 1,000 channel device. After leaving Neuralink, Philip co-founded Starfish Neuroscience, a startup focused on Neuromodulation. He currently resides in the Seattle Area.

Professor Adrian Owen OBE

Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, Canada

Professor Barbara Sahakian FMedSci

University of Cambridge, UK

Professor Barbara J Sahakian is based at the University of Cambridge Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Academy of Medical Sciences. Sahakian has an international reputation in the fields of psychopharmacology, neuropsychology, neuropsychiatry, neuroimaging and neuroethics. She has over 450 publications in scientific journals and a Hirsch (h) index of 112. Sahakian co-invented the neuropsychological CANTAB and EMOTICOM computerised tests, the University of Cambridge/PEAK Advanced Training Programme and the Wizard Apprentice Memory Game. She is a member of the WEF on the Future of Neurotechnologies and Brain Science and is on the Clinical Advisory Board of the Human Brain Project. Her policy work includes the UK Government Foresight Project on Mental Capital and Wellbeing, the UK Government Scoping the Future of Neuroscience over the next 10 Years and Grand Challenges in Global Mental Health.

Professor Philip Sabes

University of California, San Francisco, US

Philip Sabes is a neuroscientist, neural engineer and a Professor Emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Philip received his PhD from MIT, focusing on machine learning and models of human motor control, and trained as a neurophysiologist during a postdoc with Richard Andersen at Caltech.

At UCSF, the Sabes Lab combined neurophysiology, computation and behaviour to discover how sensory feedback drives movement control. The lab also developed technologies for Brain Machine Interfacing (BMI), including the first demonstration of real-time artificial sensory feedback delivered via multi-electrode microsimulation and a novel sewing-machine approach to neural interfacing that allows micron-scale, thin-film devices to be individually implanted in the brain.

In 2017, Philip retired from UCSF to help launch Neuralink. While there, the company further developed the sewing machine approach, demonstrating a fully-implanted, 1,000 channel device. After leaving Neuralink, Philip co-founded Starfish Neuroscience, a startup focused on Neuromodulation. He currently resides in the Seattle Area.

Professor Adrian Owen OBE

Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, Canada

Professor Alta Charo

University of Wisconsin–Madison, US

R Alta Charo, JD, is the Warren P Knowles professor emerita of law and bioethics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison (UW) and since 2020 works as an independent consultant to industry and government on biotechnology ethics, regulation and policy. She also serves as co-chair of the safety, security, sustainability and social responsibility unit of BioMADE, a US-based consortium of biotechnology companies and academic centers. Prior to her arrival at UW in 1989, Ms Charo served as associate director of the Legislative Drafting Research Fund of Columbia University, Fulbright lecturer in American law at the Sorbonne in Paris, legal analyst at the congressional Office of Technology Assessment, and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) diplomacy fellow at the US Agency for International Development. Also, in government, she was a member of President Clinton’s National Bioethics Advisory Commission and a senior policy advisor in the FDA’s Office of the Commissioner under the Obama administration. At the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Ms Charo has served on numerous committees, the committee that issued the 2004 report ‘Biotechnology Research in the Age of Terrorism’; the committee on emerging science, technology and innovation; and the committees on emerging infectious diseases and COVID-19 vaccine and monoclonal antibody allocation frameworks. She co-chaired the National Academies committee that wrote guidelines for embryonic stem cell research and the committee that developed recommendations for US policy and global principles for human genome editing research and clinical trials. Ms Charo recently completed service on the World Health Organization’s committee on global governance of genome editing. She is an elected member of the US National Academy of Medicine and an elected Fellow of the AAAS and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr Robin Lovell-Badge FMedSci FRS

Principal Group Leader, Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics, The Francis Crick Institute

Robin Lovell-Badge obtained his PhD at University College London in 1978 and was a postdoc in Cambridge, both with Martin Evans. After an EMBO fellowship in Paris he established his independent laboratory in 1982 at the MRC Mammalian Development Unit, UCL, directed by Anne McLaren. In 1988 he moved to the MRC National Institute for Medical Research, becoming Head of the Division of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics in 1993. The NIMR was incorporated into the Francis Crick Institute in April 2015. In 1990, his lab discovered Sry, the Y-linked sex determining gene and the first members of the Sox gene family. He has had long-standing interests in the biology of stem cells, in how genes work in the context of embryo development, and how decisions of cell fate are made. Major themes of his current work include sex determination, development of the nervous system and pituitary, and the biology of stem cells within these systems. He is also very active in both public engagement and policy work, notably around stem cells, genetics, human embryo and animal research, and in ways science is regulated and disseminated. He chairs the Royal Society’s Genetic Technologies Programme and has been involved in the human genome editing Summit meetings since their inception. He was elected a member of EMBO (1993), a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (1999), the Royal Society (2001), the Royal Society of Biology (2011), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2018). He has received the Louis Jeantet Prize for Medicine (1995), the Amory Prize (1996), the Feldberg Foundation Prize (2008), the Waddington Medal of the British Society for Developmental Biology (2010), the ISSCR Public Service Award (2021), and the Genetics Society Medal (2022). He was awarded a CBE in the 2018 New Year’s Honours List. He is an honorary professor at University College, London and at King’s College, London, and a Special Visiting Professor at the University of Hong Kong.

Professor Ray Dolan FMedSci FRS

University College London, UK

Ray Dolan is Mary Kinross Professor of Neuropsychiatry at UCL and Director of the UCL-Max Planck Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing. His research is concerned with the neural basis of decision making and its breakdown in the context of psychopathology.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) and an External Member of the Max Planck Society (MPS). He is the recipient of numerous international awards, including the Brain Prize (2017) and Ferrier Medal and Lecture (2019) from the Royal Society.

Professor Thomas Albright

Vision Center Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, CA, US

Professor Ray Dolan FMedSci FRS

University College London, UK

Ray Dolan is Mary Kinross Professor of Neuropsychiatry at UCL and Director of the UCL-Max Planck Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing. His research is concerned with the neural basis of decision making and its breakdown in the context of psychopathology.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) and an External Member of the Max Planck Society (MPS). He is the recipient of numerous international awards, including the Brain Prize (2017) and Ferrier Medal and Lecture (2019) from the Royal Society.

Professor Adrian Owen OBE

Brain and Mind Institute, Western University, Canada

Professor Barbara Sahakian

University of Cambridge, UK

Professor Philip Sabes

University of California, San Francisco, US

Philip Sabes is a neuroscientist, neural engineer and a Professor Emeritus at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Philip received his PhD from MIT, focusing on machine learning and models of human motor control, and trained as a neurophysiologist during a postdoc with Richard Andersen at Caltech.

At UCSF, the Sabes Lab combined neurophysiology, computation and behaviour to discover how sensory feedback drives movement control. The lab also developed technologies for Brain Machine Interfacing (BMI), including the first demonstration of real-time artificial sensory feedback delivered via multi-electrode microsimulation and a novel sewing-machine approach to neural interfacing that allows micron-scale, thin-film devices to be individually implanted in the brain.

In 2017, Philip retired from UCSF to help launch Neuralink. While there, the company further developed the sewing machine approach, demonstrating a fully-implanted, 1,000 channel device. After leaving Neuralink, Philip co-founded Starfish Neuroscience, a startup focused on Neuromodulation. He currently resides in the Seattle Area.

Professor Thomas Albright

Vision Center Laboratory, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, CA, US

Professor Eric Wolff FRS

University of Cambridge

Professor Eric Wolff FRS is a Royal Society Research Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Cambridge University. After graduating as a chemist, he has studied ice cores from the Antarctic and Greenland for the past 40 years, using them to understand changing climate, as well as changing levels of pollution in remote areas.  He also carries out research into the chemistry of the lower parts of the Antarctic atmosphere.  Until June 2013, he led a programme at the British Antarctic Survey, where he remains an Honorary Fellow.  He chaired the science committee of the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA), which produced 800,000 year records of climate from the Dome C (Antarctica) ice core and for many years co-chaired the international initiative (IPICS) to coordinate future ice core research.  He currently holds an ERC Advanced Grant that studies the past stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. His main research goal is to understand the causes of climate evolution over recent glacial cycles. He also chairs the Royal Society’s working party on climate change, leading a number of public and policy-facing reports. 

Professor Gabi Hegerl

University of Edinburgh, UK

Professor David Fowler CBE FRS

Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (Edinburgh Research Station), UK

David Fowler’s research interests are mainly in the biogeochemistry of nitrogen, sulphur and carbon and specifically on surface-atmosphere exchange processes. These interests include some of the major regional environmental issues including photochemical oxidants, eutrophication, acid deposition, emissions of greenhouse gases and atmospheric aerosols. His published work includes 210 refereed publications and a similar output of other papers, reports and books. He has an Honorary Professorship at the University of Nottingham, became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1999, a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 2002, and in 2005 was awarded a CBE for services in Atmospheric Pollution research. 

Professor Eric Wolff FRS

University of Cambridge

Professor Eric Wolff FRS is a Royal Society Research Professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Cambridge University. After graduating as a chemist, he has studied ice cores from the Antarctic and Greenland for the past 40 years, using them to understand changing climate, as well as changing levels of pollution in remote areas.  He also carries out research into the chemistry of the lower parts of the Antarctic atmosphere.  Until June 2013, he led a programme at the British Antarctic Survey, where he remains an Honorary Fellow.  He chaired the science committee of the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (EPICA), which produced 800,000 year records of climate from the Dome C (Antarctica) ice core and for many years co-chaired the international initiative (IPICS) to coordinate future ice core research.  He currently holds an ERC Advanced Grant that studies the past stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. His main research goal is to understand the causes of climate evolution over recent glacial cycles. He also chairs the Royal Society’s working party on climate change, leading a number of public and policy-facing reports. 

Professor Gabi Hegerl

University of Edinburgh, UK

Professor David Fowler CBE FRS

Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (Edinburgh Research Station), UK

David Fowler’s research interests are mainly in the biogeochemistry of nitrogen, sulphur and carbon and specifically on surface-atmosphere exchange processes. These interests include some of the major regional environmental issues including photochemical oxidants, eutrophication, acid deposition, emissions of greenhouse gases and atmospheric aerosols. His published work includes 210 refereed publications and a similar output of other papers, reports and books. He has an Honorary Professorship at the University of Nottingham, became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1999, a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 2002, and in 2005 was awarded a CBE for services in Atmospheric Pollution research.