PROFESSOR CHRIS HIGGINS, Vice-Chancellor and Warden, Durham University
STEM CELLS: SCIENCE, MEDICINE AND ETHICS
Date/Time: 5th February 2009, 17:30
To hear a recording of this lecture:
Stem cell research is heralded by some as leading to new miracle cures. Stem cell research is heralded by others as unethical and even evil. As is usually the case, neither of these extreme view points is correct. This lecture will describe the science, medicine and ethics underpinning stem cell research. Professor Higgins will describe some of the scientific ideas underpinning research with stem cells essential for understanding the rights and wrongs of arguments for and against their use. Stem cells will indeed provide cures for a significant range of currently incurable disorders and diseases, but much research is needed before any stem cell therapies will become regularly available and be demonstrably safe. Professor Higgins will also argue that it is ethically wrong not to conduct regulated research using stem cells in order to improve human health and well being. The UK is a leader in such research for medical benefit but this lead may be lost unless there is strong national commitment.
Chris Higgins took up his position as Vice-Chancellor and Warden of Durham University in April 2007. He was a Junior Exhibitioner at the Royal College of Music, London, but then entered Durham University where he obtained a first class degree (1976) and PhD (1979) in botany. He won an SERC Postdoctoral Fellowship to study molecular genetics and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, following which returned to the UK as lecturer and then Professor at the University of Dundee. He moved to oxford in 1989 as Principal Scientist with the Imperial Cancer Research Fund (now CR-UK) and in 1993 he was appointed Nuffield Professor and Head of Department of Clinical Biochemistry at the University of Oxford. In 1998, was appointed Director of the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre and Professor and Head of Division of Clinical Sciences at Imperial College London. He has published over 200 research papers in the field of cell biology and genetics and awards for his research include the CIBA Medal, Fleming Prize, and a Howard Hughes International Scholarship. He has been elected Fellow of EMBO, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Royal Society of Arts, and the Academy of Medical Sciences. He has served on the Councils of BBSRC and the Academy of Medical Sciences, as scientific advisor to the House of Lords Select Committee on Stem Cell Research, and is currently Chair of SEAC (Spongiform Encephalopathy Advisory Committee) and a member of the Human Genetics Commission.