Financial Support for the International Conference "GMOs in 2030: Reaping the Promise While Leaping the Pitfalls?", October 14-18, 2003

项目摘要0240254“2030年的转基因生物：在跨越陷阱的同时收获承诺？”加州大学河滨分校的诺曼·埃尔斯特兰德“2030年的转基因生物：在跨越陷阱的同时收获承诺”将于2003年10月14-18日由加州大学河滨分校生物技术影响中心召开。组织者是遗传学教授兼生物技术影响中心主任诺曼·C·埃尔斯特兰德和杰出的经济学教授理查德·苏奇。几乎所有关注过这一问题的人，从生物学家和农学家，到经济学家和伦理学家，再到普通的有思想的人，都同意生物技术领域的新发现具有巨大的潜力。与此同时，正在出现和即将出现的新技术对环境、社会、伦理、法律、经济和文化的影响也存在不确定性。“转基因生物2030年的目标：在跨越陷阱的同时收获承诺？”是对利用转基因生物造福人类和环境采取有远见和谨慎的方法，确定原则和议定书，作为文明、尊重和知情对话的框架，讨论社会在生物技术应用方面面临的无数问题。这次会议与其他探讨生物技术相关问题的会议的不同之处在于，它将汇集来自不同学科视角的知名学者，而不是大多数关于这一主题的会议，通常只有生命科学家与一位或几位象征性的人文主义者或社会科学家参加，反之亦然。与会者将审查诸如人类在管理生物圈方面的责任、在基因水平上操纵生命的能力以及公众参与生物技术应用评估等重大主题。研究转基因大米以提供增强营养和蚊子以提供对某些昆虫传播疾病的保护的案例研究将努力说明转基因革命提出的问题的复杂性和相互关联性。会议组织者打算以一种吸引美国国内外世界级思想家的形式提出这些和其他令人信服的问题。为确保政策制定者、生物技术行业代表、非政府组织和其他感兴趣的学者了解会议成果，将出版一本关于这些问题的可能政策方针的书，其中各章由主要与会者撰写，并将出版关于具体问题的政策简报。拟议的会议将促进年轻、有前途的研究人员和学者的教学和培训；特别鼓励博士后学者和研究生，包括那些来自代表不足群体的人参加。这项提议寻求国家科学基金会对会议的部分财政支持。

PROJECT ABSTRACTSES 0240254"GMOs in 2030:Reaping the Promise While Leaping the Pitfalls?"Norman Ellstrand, University of California, Riverside"GMOs in 2030: Reaping the Promise While Leaping the Pitfalls" will be convened by the Biotechnology Impacts Center at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) October 14-18, 2003. The organizers are Norman C. Ellstrand, Professor of Genetics and Director of the Biotechnology Impacts Center, and Richard Sutch, Distinguished Professor of Economics. Nearly everyone who has looked at the issue, from biologists and agronomists to economists and ethicists to ordinary thoughtful people, agree that there is tremendous potential in the new discoveries occurring in biotechnology. At the same time, there is uncertainty over the environmental, social, ethical, legal, economic, and cultural consequences of the new technologies emerging now and those yet to come. The objective of "GMOs in 2030: Reaping the Promise While Leaping the Pitfalls?" is to take a visionary and mindful approach to the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for the benefit of humankind and the environment by identifying principles and protocols that will serve as a framework for a civilized, respectful and informed dialog on the myriad issues facing society in the application of biotechnology. The conference will be distinctive from others exploring issues associated with biotechnology in that it will integrate leading scholars from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, as opposed to most conferences on the topic, which typically involve life scientists exclusively with one or a few token humanists or social scientists, or vice versa. Conference participants will examine such over-arching topics as the responsibility of humankind in stewardship of the biosphere vs. the ability to manipulate life at the gene level and public participation in the assessment of biotechnology applications. Case studies examining the genetic modification of rice to provide enhanced nutrition and of mosquitoes to provide protection against certain insect-vectored diseases will endeavor to illustrate the complexity and interrelatedness of the issues raised by the GMO revolution. The conference organizers intend to present these and other compelling questions in a format that will be attractive to world-class thinkers both from within and outside of the United States. To insure that conference outcomes reach policy makers, biotech industry representatives, non-governmental organizations and other interested scholars, a book on possible policy approaches to the issues, with chapters authored by the major participants, will be published, as will policy briefs on specific issues. The proposed conference will advance the teaching and training of young, promising researchers and scholars; postdoctoral scholars and graduate students, including those from underrepresented groups, will be particularly encouraged to participate. This proposal seeks partial financial support of the conference from the National Science Foundation.