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Bioethics Lecture
 7/30/03 - 4:00 PM - Lillie Auditorium
"Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis: The Technology, the Medicine and the Bioethics"
Mark Hughes, M.D., Ph.D., Wayne State University Genetics
Introduction by Dr. David F. Albertini, Tufts University School of Medicine
Sponsored by Drs. Gerald and Ruth Fischbach
The completion of the Human Genome Project heralds a new era of Functional Genomics. Raw DNA information that comprises the blueprint of human life will be data-mined, taken apart, spliced together, and injected into cells, animals, and embryos in ways we can barely imagine. The promise is for new medicines, predictive diagnostic tests, and stem cell therapies. The potential for societal, legal, and ethical uses/abuses of this powerful information is especially strong in reproductive genetics involving human embryos and the developmentally totipotent cells derived from embryos. Most every American has a visceral and reflexive response regarding these promising yet troubling technologies. One such new technology is called “Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis” (PGD) of the human embryo. PGD combines the technologies of in vitro fertilization (IVF), embryo culture and biopsy, and single-cell molecular genetics. It provides couples at high genetic risk the opportunity to begin their pregnancy on day-one, with the knowledge that their fetus will not have the inherited disorder that afflicts their family. No longer do they need to throw the genetic dice, take a chance, and consider amniocentesis. This talk will mesh the biomedical tools of IVF-PGD with the clinical genetic scenarios of desperate couples. The boundaries of testing for diseases versus traits will be explored with real-patient data.
A reception will follow in the Lillie Lobby.
Mark Hughes is a Professor and Director of Molecular Medicine and Genetics at Wayne State University and Director of the Genomics Center Hub for the State of Michigan's Life Sciences Corridor. Formerly at the Human Genome Institute at the National Institutes of Health, his work has centered on understanding gene expression in the early human embryo. He pioneered the field of PGD for couples at very high reproductive genetic risk and offers this technology in conjunction with IVF Centers in the U.S. and Canada. Hughes earned dual bachelor of science degrees in Chemistry and Biology from St. Johns University in Minnesota, his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Arizona College of Medicine, and his M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine in Texas. He joined the faculty of Wayne State University in 1998.
David F. Albertini is a Professor of Anatomy and Cellular Biology and Obstetrics and Gynecology at Tufts University School of Medicine. He received his B.S. in Biology from Marquette University in 1970, his M.S. in Zoology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1972, and his Ph.D. in Anatomy from Harvard University in 1975. Dr. Albertini held positions in Department of Anatomy and was a member of the Laboratory of Human Reproduction and Reproductive Biology and the Program in Cell and Developmental Biology at Harvard Medical School from 1977 to 1983. He has been on the faculty at Tufts since 1984. Dr. Albertini is currently a Lecturer in Pathology at Harvard Medical School and an Associated Scientist at the New England Regional Primate Research Center. He studies axis specification in developing embryos. For the summer of 2003, as The Laura and Arthur Colwin Endowed Summer Research Fellow at the MBL, he is exploring the basic mechanisms used through evolution to establish polarity in eggs using marine organisms as models. Dr. Albertini has been a faculty member of the MBL's Frontiers in Reproduction Course for several years.
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