CRISPR Highlights

On October 5, many faculty, staff, students, alumni and visitors attended "Gene Editing: Who Draws the Line? The science, ethics and advances of CRISPR." CRISPR stands for clustered regulated interspaced short palidromic repeats; it is a gene editing technology that has gained immense attention in the science fields and beyond. At the Special Lecture, Dr. Ting Wu (Harvard Medical School) walked us through the development of various gene editing tools. During the Panel Discussion, Dr. Nathan Joh (Amgen) and Dr. Rico Vitz (Philosophy, APU) joined Dr. Wu to further discuss some implications. The audience asked questions on the rationale for enhancement and trans-humanism. The room was energized and engaged with these complicated issues. It is our hope that these Science & Faith events will serve as a springboard into deeper conversations in and outside of the classroom, on and off campus. Let us know any comments and feedback at cris@apu.edu. The event video will be posted on www.apu.edu.cris soon.