Date: Saturday, September 17, 2022

Time: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Location: Williams Center for the Arts, Lafayette College, Easton, PA

About the Symposium

The Lehigh Valley Symposium on CRISPR Implementation and Ethics (LV-SCIE) is an interdisciplinary gathering of scientists, humanists, researchers, students, and members of the Lehigh Valley community to discuss the implications of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology. The day-long symposium includes presentations by students and faculty, including two keynote speakers; a facilitated discussion between speakers and attendees; and an interdisciplinary, student poster session. While the symposium will focus on the scientific background and ethical implications of the CRISPR technology, it also provides a space for engaging with complex problems through scholarly communication, collaboration, and understanding across (and beyond) disciplinary boundaries.

The idea to hold this symposium emerged from a student book club, led by Dr. Heidi Hendrickson (Lafayette College), exploring A Crack in Creation by Nobel Laureate Dr. Jennifer Doudna and her former PhD student, Dr. Samuel Sternberg.

In 2020, Dr. Jennifer Doudna and Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their recent work discovering and developing the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology. The CRISPR-Cas9 system provides a cheap and effective way to make precise edits in DNA by cutting the DNA at very specific locations, akin to “molecular-level scissors.” The relative ease by which gene-editing can now be pursued using CRISPR has accelerated the need to discuss the ethical and policy issues related to widespread use of the technology. As Dr. Doudna puts it, “gene-editing technology gives us a chance to hold an informed public discussion about how we want to use CRISPR’s most far-reaching power: the ability to control the future of life. But if we wait too long, we may find that the reins have slipped from our hands.”

When Lafayette College students learned about CRISPR through the course of their summer book club, they realized the topics covered in the book are immediately relevant to public discourse and should be discussed within an interdisciplinary context. As a result, they were compelled to organize the Lehigh Valley Symposium on CRISPR Implementation and Ethics.