The science, ethics and governance of human genome editing

Dr. Oliver Feeney (University of Tübingen)

Dr. Feeney’s primary research is on the ethical, legal, and social (justice) implications of biomedical technologies, particularly the ethics and governance of genome editing; ethics of human enhancement; fostering trust with participatory involvement in science and medicine, and the role of patents in the context of new technologies. His PhD on Genetics and Justice (2009) combined political philosophy and bioethics and was awarded that year’s National Basil Chubb Prize for best PhD thesis in any field of politics in Ireland. His publications have appeared in Bioethics, Developing World Bioethics, Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, and The American Journal of Bioethics. 

Members of the newly established Gene and RNA Therapy Center (GRTC), University Hospital Tübingen

Prof. Julia Skokowa (University Hospital Tübingen) 

Prof. Julia Skokowa MD, Ph.D. is Professor and Head of the Division of Translational Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine II - Haematology, Oncology, Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, University Hospital Tübingen. Her expertise and interest in gene therapy covers novel therapeutic modalities of severe congenital neutropenia using gene editing; disease modelling of severe congenital neutropenia in vitro and in vivo; design and development of novel therapeutic proteins for gene editing; establishment of novel gene therapy delivery routes for hematopoietic stem cells and development of AAV constructs with tropism for hematopoietic stem cells.

Prof. Dr. Ulrich Lauer (University Tübingen)

Ulrich Lauer, Dr. Med is Professor and Deputy Director of the Dept. of Medical Oncology and Pneumology, University Tübingen and Head of the Virotherapy Center in Tübingen. His expertise and interest in gene therapy covers suicide gene-enhanced 2nd generation measles vaccine virus oncolytic virotherapeutic compound (completely developed form bench-to-bedside at University Tübingen, Germany); Germany ́s top Clinical Virotherapy Center carrying out numerous Phase I/II virotherapy trials; AAV gene complementation in hepatic disorders (e.g., Phase I clinical trials in Morbus Wilson); Sendai Virus (SeV) based novel vaccine type inducing sterilizing immunity against pandemic threats caused by viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) or other respiratory pathogens.

Dr. med. Reka Haraszti (University Tübingen)

Reka Haraszti, Dr. med; PhD., is Junior Group Leader & Hematology/Oncology Fellow in the Department of Medicine II, University Tübingen. Her expertise and interest in gene therapy covers Chemically modified siRNAs; Extracellular vesicles for gene/RNA therapy delivery; Immunomodulation via siRNAs; siRNA pharmacokinetics; and Mesenchymal stem cells.

Visiting lecturers in ethics and governance from Stockholm, Madrid, Aix-en-Provence, Marseille and Bucharest

Dr. Greg Bognar (Stockholm University)

Greg Bognar is Associate Professor of Practical Philosophy at Stockholm University and Senior Researcher at the Stockholm Centre for Healthcare Ethics (CHE). He is the co-author of The Ethics of Health Care Rationing (Routledge, 2014, second edition 2022) and co-editor of Aging without Agism? Conceptual Puzzles and Policy Proposals (forthcoming from Oxford University Press). His main research interests are in population-level bioethics and politics, philosophy, and economics (PPE), particularly in priority settings in health care, the ethical issues of demographic change and population ageing, and issues of distributive justice in public health.

Prof. José María Carrascosa (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)

José María Carrascosa obtained his PhD at the Universidad Autónoma in Madrid (UAM) in 1983 and moved to Munich for a postdoctoral stay at the Institute for Diabetes Research. Back at UAM in 1986, he continued his research on diabetes and obesity-associated ageing, becoming project leader in 1991. He became Associated Professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in 1989 and Full Professor in 2010. He has taught bioethics and science ethics to undergraduate and postgraduate students since 2008. He is member of the Research Ethics Committee of UAM and was Dean of the Faculty of Sciences (2013–2021).

Dr. Aurélie Mahalatchimy (Aix-Marseille Université)

Aurélie Mahalatchimy’s main research interest is biomedical innovation, especially the uses of human genes, cells and tissues for therapeutic, scientific, commercial and industrial purposes. She has a Doctorate in law from the Law Faculty of Toulouse, France. Her PhD thesis was on the impact of European Union law on the regulation of advanced therapy medicinal products in France and in the UK. She is permanent Researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS, chargée de recherche), Aix Marseille University, Toulon University, Pau & Pays Adour University, International, Comparative and European laws (DICE- CERIC) research lab, Aix-en-Provence, France.       

Dr. Emilian Mihailov (University of Bucharest)

Emilian Mihailov is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, and director of the Research Centre in Applied Ethics, within the Faculty of Philosophy. He has published on moral psychology, neuroethics, the ethics of enhancement and experimental bioethics in leading journals such as American Journal of Bioethics, Science and Engineering Ethics, Bioethics, Consciousness & Cognition, Review of Philosophy and Psychology. Emilian Mihailov is the director of the ENHATEC project, which aims to explore the ethical issues raised by enhancement technologies and how moral enhancement can address the existential threat of climate change.

Tübingen lecturers in ethics

Katharina Trettenbach (University of Tübingen/University of Potsdam.)

With a background between biochemistry, psychology, neuroscience and medicine, Katharina has been a member of the research group Ethics of Genome Editing at the Institute for the Ethics and History of Medicine since 2017, where she has been pursuing doctoral research since 2020. Her dissertation project deals with the ethical challenges of translational research in Germline Genome Editing. Katharina also works at the Department for Medical Ethics at the University of Potsdam, working on medical ethics and digitization. Aside from research ethics, her research interests include neuroethics, the ethics of (bio)technologies and their intersections with the philosophy of medicine.

Dr. Uta Müller (University of Tübingen)

Dr. Uta Müller, research assistant, International Centre for Ethics in the Sciences and Humanities (IZEW), Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen. She studied philosophy and political sciences at the universities of Heidelberg and Munich. Uta Müller is head of the department “Ethics and Education” of the IZEW and responsible for the interdisciplinary study program of the IZEW. Her research focuses on various issues in Applied Ethics, especially questions of didactics of philosophy and ethics, and ethical questions of the social sciences. She is also responsible for the certificate study program “Ethik in der Praxis” (for all students) at the Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen.