This session was hosted as part of the 2021 virtual 25th Anniversary event, “Forward Together: Where Science, Ethics, and Religion Intersect in a Changing World.“
How do our genetics impact who we are, as individuals or as a species? During this session, panelists shared perspectives on recent advances in genetics, how genetic research can be applied (or misapplied), and how this work can inform our understanding of who we are.
Noah Collins, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and descendant of the White Mountain Apache Tribe, is a medical anthropologist and bioethicist with Variant Bio, Inc. Noah’s research has focused on Indigenous health disparities, precision medicine, and community based participatory research especially in biomedical spaces. Noah has previously worked at the Center for Ethics in Indigenous Genomics Research at the University of Oklahoma, and then went on to conduct genetics research in New Zealand with Maori communities on a Fulbright scholarship. Noah’s work combines cultural knowledge and experience with cutting edge technologies to create tangible, global change.
Dr. Praveen Sethupathy is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Sciences and Director of the Center for Genomics at Cornell University, where he directs a research lab focused on genomic approaches to understand human health and disease. He received his BA from Cornell University and his PhD in Genomics from the University of Pennsylvania. After completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the National Human Genome Research Institute under the mentorship of Dr. Francis Collins, he moved in 2011 to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Genetics. In 2017, he returned to Cornell University as an Associate Professor. Praveen has authored over 105 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals and has served as a reviewer for over 35 different journals. He has been an invited speaker for the Veritas Forum, has served on the advisory board for the AAAS Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion, and serves on the Board of Directors for the BioLogos Foundation.
Dr. Rob O’Malley (PhD, Integrative and Evolutionary Biology) is a Project Director for the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion program at AAAS. His academic research on primate behavioral ecology has included studies of wild capuchins in Costa Rica, orangutans at the National Zoological Park, and wild chimpanzees at Gombe National Park in Tanzania. Rob has taught biological anthropology across the US and Canada, and engages with the public about science through the Smithsonian, the Skype-A-Scientist program, and other initiatives.
