University of Minnesota Consortium Receives $900K Grant from NIH to Develop Nanomedicine Research Ethics
Minneapolis, MN (10/09/2009)—The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the University of Minnesota's Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences a grant of $914,044 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for a 2-year project on "Nanodiagnostics and Nanotherapeutics: Building Research Ethics and Oversight." This project will produce the first systematic and comprehensive recommendations on how to protect human participants in research on nanodiagnostics and nanotherapeutics, including drugs, devices, and gene therapy using nano-vectors. Prof. Susan M. Wolf, JD, is the Principal Investigator. Co-Investigators are Profs. Jeffrey McCullough, MD; Ralph Hall, JD; and Jeffrey Kahn, PhD, MPH.
Research in nano-medicine is burgeoning, with research on human participants under way, but current research ethics and oversight have not yet adequately addressed key concerns including uncertainty about how to assess risks. The project group will use normative, empirical, and policy analysis to evaluate current approaches to nanomedicine research ethics and oversight, generating much-needed recommendations on ethics standards and oversight processes.
The working group on this project includes top scholars from across the nation. Working group members include: Steve Campbell, PhD, University of Minnesota; Rebecca Dresser, JD, Washington University; Arthur Erdman, PhD, University of Minnesota; Mauro Ferrari, PhD, University of Texas; Christy Haynes, PhD, University of Minnesota; Robert Hoerr, MD, PhD, Nanocopeia, Inc.; Linda Hogle, PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Moira Keane, University of Minnesota; George Khushf, PhD, University of South Carolina; Nancy M.P. King, JD, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center; Efie Kokkoli, PhD, University of Minnesota; Frances Lawrenz, PhD, University of Minnesota; Gary Marchant, PhD, JD, MPP, Arizona State University; Andrew Maynard, PhD, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; Scott McIvor, PhD, University of Minnesota; Gurumurthy Ramachandran, PhD, University of Minnesota; Ron Siegel, PhD, University of Minnesota; Jeremy Sugarman, MD, MPH, MA, Johns Hopkins University; and Frank Torti, MD, MPH, Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
Prof. Wolf is McKnight Presidential Professor of Law, Medicine & Public Policy; Faegre & Benson Professor of Law; Professor of Medicine; and a Faculty Member in the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota. She is Founding Chair of the University's Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences and Founding Director of the University's Joint Degree Program in Law, Health & the Life Sciences.