Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy

This is a past event

Considering the Future of U.S. Policy on “Three-Parent IVF”

Couldn’t join us? Check out the conversation on Twitter: @PetrieFlom #MRTpanel and some of our speakers’ slide presentations below!

Learn more about the issues! Check out media coverage supporting the Petrie-Flom Center’s initiative to discuss lifting the prohibition on MRT in the United States, and a news article about the event in Stat News!

Description

A 2015 Congressional amendment precludes Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy (MRT), a life-saving IVF-based procedure that could prevent a plethora of mitochondrial DNA diseases in the U.S. Individuals do not, at present, have access to this technology to prevent the devastating consequences of mitochondrial DNA disease. At the same time, MRT continues to move forward in other countries, such as the UK.

Has the time come to revisit the federal prohibition of this preventive therapy and research?

Expert panelists discussed the future of MRT policy in the U.S., reviewing the latest technological developments, the regulatory barriers, and the ethical challenges affecting the clinical application of MRT.

This event was free and open to the public.

Speakers

Welcome

  • I. Glenn Cohen, James A. Attwood and Leslie Williams Professor of Law, Harvard Law School and Faculty Director, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School

Opening Remarks

  • Eli Y. Adashi, Professor of Medical Science, The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University

Panel Discussion

  • Shoukhrat Mitalipov, Principal Investigator and Director of the Center for Embryonic Cell and Gene Therapy, Senior Scientist in the Division of Reproductive & Developmental Sciences of ONPRC, and Professor in Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Obstetrics, Gynecology & Pediatrics, and Molecular & Medical Genetics, School of Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University
  • Dietrich M. Egli, Assistant Professor of Developmental Cell Biology (in Pediatrics), Columbia Stem Cell Initiative
  • Cesar Palacios-Gonzalez, Career Development Fellow, Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, University of Oxford
  • Sheila Jasanoff, Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies and Director, Program on Science, Technology, and Society, Harvard Kennedy School
  • Moderator: I. Glenn Cohen, James A. Attwood and Leslie Williams Professor of Law, Harvard Law School and Faculty Director, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School

Learn More

Selected readings on MRT policy in the U.S. and abroad

Slide Presentations

Sponsored by the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, with support from the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School and the Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund at Harvard University.