Ma y 17, 2011 _ 17.30-19.00 _ University of Vienna, Aula am Campus
DI S C U SS I ON
Looking Back Ahead:
The 10 th Anniversary
of the Human Genome
and Its Implications for
Science and Society
With interventions by Giulio Superti-Furga and Giuseppe Testa
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of draft human genomes. In
2001, these drafts were celebrated with much glamour and presidential fanfare – not
least, because they promised to be the first step into a future in which this new code
of life would help scientists unravel the secrets of disorder and life itself.
In this event, we seek to take the 10th anniversary of the human genome as an occasion to look back at the past ten years. Capitalizing on the past ten years, we want to
explore how far we have moved since then. What do the 2001 draft genomes mean to
us, today? What has happened since then and what does this imply for science and
society? Which promises have been materialized and which unexpected transformations have taken shape? Looking back to the past ten years, then, will also enable us
to look ahead to the coming decade: What is left from the genomic revolution and
what might we expect for the next decade? And what might we learn from the human
genome on the relationship between the bio-sciences and society at the beginning of
the 21st century?
This discussion, to which you are very much invited, will be concluded by a reception.
Giulio Superti-Furga, Ph.D., is Scientific Director and CEO of the Research Center of
Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and a visiting professor at the
Medical University of Vienna. Giulio Superti-Furga is a member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.
Giuseppe Testa, Ph.D., heads the Laboratory of Stem Cell Epigenetics at the European Institute for Oncology (IEO) in Milan and is the cofounder of the interdisciplinary
PhD program FOLSATEC (Foundations of the Life Sciences and Their Ethical Consequences) in Milan. With a background in the life-sciences, Giuseppe Testa has also a
training in the Social Studies of Science and Technology. Together with Helga Nowotny,
he has co-authored “The Naked Gene” (MIT Press, forthcoming).
This event is sponsored by the Life-Science-Governance Research Platform at
the University of Vienna (http://www.univie.ac.at/LSG) . It is the pre-event of
the following Kick-Off Conference of the COST sponsored Action “Bio-objects
and their Boundaries: Governing Matters at the Intersection of Society, Politics
and Science” (http://www.bioobjects.eu).
If you want to learn more on this project, or on any of these events, do not
hesitate to get in touch with Ms. Ingrid Metzler (ingrid.metzler@univie.ac.at)