Synthetic biology, and its sister field systems biology, offers the means to reengineer DNA in ways (and at a pace) that Nature, in her evolutionary wisdom, never envisioned. Standing at the unique crossroads of biology, engineering, computer science and neuroscience, these emerging fields are working toward the development of novel drugs and energy sources, the cure of disease and prolongation of life, and even the creation of new forms of life. Do synthetic and systems biology herald the true arrival of Promethean Man, who has thieved the very fire of transformation--the code of life--from the gods? Experts in synthetic and systems biology, molecular genetics and biomedical research, as well as a journalist of medical innovation, will offer their views on the aspirations--and pitfalls--of this brave new science.
Free and open to the public.
All Helix Center events are free and open to the public, including this one!
Roundtables are streamed live our website and the recording remains available after the event events.
This is a past event that happened on Saturday, May 11th 2:30 - 4:30PM.
Participants
Andrea Califano
Clyde and Helen Wu Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology, Columbia University
Andrea Califano is the Clyde and Helen Wu Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology, in the departments of Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics and of Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University. He is currently the founding director and chair of the Columbia Initiative for Systems Biology. He also serves as Associate Director for Bioinformatics in the Herbert... read more! »
Mark Fishman
President of Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Novartis
Mark C. Fishman, M.D., is President of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research. He leads worldwide discovery and early clinical activities of Novartis, which aims to develop novel therapeutics for diseases. Prior to joining Novartis, Dr. Fishman was Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, as well as Chief of Cardiology at the Massachusetts General... read more! »
Michael Hecht
Professor of Chemistry, Princeton University
Michael Hecht is a Professor of Chemistry at Princeton and holds affiliated appointments in the Department of Molecular Biology and the Institute for Integrative Genomics. His research is at the interface of chemistry and biology. Specifically, his lab works in protein design and synthetic biology, as well as on the molecular underpinnings of Alzheimer’s disease.... read more! »
Christopher Mason
Assistant Professor in Physiology and Biophysics, Institute for Computational Biology, Weill Cornell Medical College
Christopher E. Mason is Assistant Professor at Weill Cornell Medical College in the Department of Physiology and Biophysics and at the Institute for Computational Biomedicine. Professor Mason also holds appointments in the Tri-Institutional Program on Computational Biology and Medicine (Cornell, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Rockefeller University), and at the Weill Cornell Cancer Center, where... read more! »
Saeed Tavazoie
Professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Biophysics, and Systems Biology, Columbia University
Saeed Tavazoie is a systems biologist who was professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and the Institute for Integrative Genomics at Princeton before joining the faculty at Columbia University in 2011. Over the years, his laboratory has addressed fundamental challenges in decoding the regulatory genome and revealing how networks of interacting genes implement complex... read more! »
Michael Waldholz
Medical Science Writer and Media Consultant
Michael Waldholz most recently served for six years as managing editor at Bloomberg News/Businessweek,following his 25-year career as a writer, editor, and bureau chief at the Wall Street Journal. At Bloomberg, he was responsible for news coverage related to health care and science, including the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, health insurance, medical services, public health, and health policy. Mr. Waldholz... read more! »