I just found out that Stanford has a center called Bio‑X.
Is it just me, or does that sound like some sort of shapeshifting superhero?
In reality, Bio‑X is arguably the most ambitious interdisciplinary bioscience research effort in the world. (source)
There’s an interview with Matthew Scott, chair of Bio‑X, on the Stanford website. In it, he talks about his hopes for the superhero-monikered program.
One section I found particularly interesting:
We have a bioethics expert, Hank Greely [professor of law] as a member of the Bio‑X Leadership Council, and he will be advising about this. Many issues are likely to come up — issues of access to health care, debates about the meaning, practical applications, and dangers of new technologies, or genetic privacy — all kinds of things arise, some of them ethical issues and some of them scientific issues with social impact, not strictly ethical.
Hmm… if I had to pick ethical issues related to interdisciplinary genetic and biological research, access to health care would not be the very first thing on the top off my head.
Still, it sounds like a tremendously important research project–giving me another occasion to repeat our rallying cry–today they learn, tomorrow they lead. These future leaders must be reached with the gospel!