BME 80G Seminar: To Infinity and Beyond? Ethical, legal, and social issues of human research in space”

Presenter: Vaso Rahimzadeh, Assistant Professor, Baylor College of Medicine

Description: As humans venture farther into outer space, new scientific discovery awaits including in genomics; but so do new ethical dilemmas.  Who bears the risks (and rewards) of space exploration and how should humanity ethically expand beyond our planet? This session will have students think critically about the ethical, legal, and social issues of human genomic research in space and offer frameworks for analyzing them. Students will learn about the contemporary challenges and opportunities of genomic research for the upcoming lunar missions, and in anticipation of future Mars exploration.

Bio: I am Assistant Professor at the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine. In my National Institutes of Health-funded research, I investigate the ethical, legal, and social issues of health data sharing on earth and in space. I aim to inform policy and practice in ways that maximize the scientific value of data while respecting the rights and interests of individuals and communities. I director the METEORS program (Mission to Enhance eThics Education, Outreach, and Research in Space) and serve on the Bioethics Advisory Panel for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). I am a proud UC alum, earning my BS in Microbial Biology from UC Berkeley in 2012, and hold a PhD from McGill University with a specialization in biomedical ethics. You can read more about my background and read my work here.

Hosted by: Professor Karen Miga, BME Department