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

项目摘要：《2030年的转基因生物：收获希望同时跨越陷阱？》“2030年的转基因生物：收获希望，跨越陷阱”将由加州大学河滨分校生物技术影响中心于2003年10月14日至18日召开。组织者是遗传学教授兼生物技术影响中心主任Norman C. Ellstrand和杰出经济学教授Richard Sutch。几乎所有研究过这个问题的人，从生物学家、农学家、经济学家、伦理学家到普通的有思想的人，都同意生物技术领域的新发现蕴藏着巨大的潜力。与此同时，新技术在环境、社会、伦理、法律、经济和文化等方面的影响也存在不确定性。“2030年的转基因生物：收获希望，跨越陷阱？”的目标是通过确定原则和协议作为框架，就生物技术应用中社会面临的无数问题进行文明、尊重和知情的对话，采取有远见和谨慎的方法，利用转基因生物造福人类和环境。这次会议将与其他探索生物技术相关问题的会议不同，因为它将整合来自不同学科角度的主要学者，而不是大多数关于该主题的会议，通常只涉及生命科学家和一个或几个象征性的人文主义者或社会科学家，反之亦然。与会者将研究诸如人类在管理生物圈方面的责任与在基因水平上操纵生命的能力以及公众参与评估生物技术应用等首要主题。对水稻进行基因改造以提高营养，对蚊子进行基因改造以防止某些昆虫传播的疾病的案例研究，将努力说明转基因生物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。为了确保决策者、生物技术工业代表、非政府组织和其他感兴趣的学者了解会议的成果，将出版一本关于解决这些问题的可能政策办法的书，其中的章节由主要与会者撰写，还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，包括那些来自代表性不足群体的学生参加。该提案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.