BioAgenda on Video — Watch the Entire Summit (Click on each chapter)

On June 21, 2007 the BioAgenda Institute held its third annual summit at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, near Washington, DC. Participants from around the world participated in this one-day retreat for leaders and thinkers from science, business, the media, public policy, advocacy, and the arts, with speakers and members of the audience representing differing points of view in a spirited exchange of ideas.

The theme of the meeting was: “On the Edge: Healing the Rift Between Science and Politics”. Over 30 speakers addressed the ancient interplay between these two realms in panels, talks and presentations on topics ranging from “Science in the Bush Years” and “Reforming the FDA” to talks on increasing lifespan, neglected diseases, and the future of life sciences in the year 2025.

1: Summit Opening: Welcome and Opening Remarks

David Ewing Duncan, Summit Host
Jennie Hunter-Cevera, Chair, BioAgenda East Vanguard Committee
Martin O’Malley, Governor of Maryland

2: Science in the Bush Years and Beyond

Leaders from the administration and the loyal opposition join a critic and a world-famous scientist to assess the last six years of politics and science in Washington, and how it will impact the future.

Joshua Boger, PhD, Founder, President and CEO, Vertex Pharmaceuticals; Chairman, BIO
Gregory Simon, President, FasterCures; former Chief Domestic Advisor to Vice President Al Gore
George Atkinson, PhD, former Scientific Advisor to Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice
Jacques S. Gansler, PhD, Professor and Roger C. Lipitz Chair; Director, Sloan Biotechnology Industry Center, School of Public Policy, University of Maryland

Moderator: Jason Pontin, Editor-in-Chief, MIT Technology Review

Co-Organized by FasterCures/The Milken Institute

3: BioAgenda Innovator Award and Presentation

We are pleased to offer the first BioAgenda Innovator of the Year Award to a major scientist for work that will profoundly impact society in the next 25 years for work on the role of Resveratrol in extending lifespan. The winner delivered a brief talk.

David Sinclair, PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology, Harvard University; Co-founder, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals and Genocea Inc.

Co-Organized by the Smithsonian’s Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation

4: Welcome from Montgomery County, Maryland

Isiah (Ike) Leggett, Montgomery County Executive, State of Maryland

5: Break: Excerpt from Gattaca (1997), 10th Anniversary Screening

6: Roundtable: NPR Talk’s BioTech Nation: Election 2008: Science, Issues and Candidates

Using radio-microphones and headsets, BioTech Nation Host Moira Gunn and Chief Correspondent David Ewing Duncan conduct one of their signature two-way interviews with a diverse panel about what they think the election year of 2008 (which has already begun) will mean for the life sciences – taped for international broadcast.

Panel:
G. Steven Burrill, CEO, Burrill and Company
Rustum Roy, PhD, Founding Director Materials Research Laboratory and Professor of Materials, Arizona State and Penn State Universities; Founder & Chair of Friends of Health
Cynthia Schneider, PhD, Distinguished Professor, Georgetown University; former U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands; expert in Renaissance art
Nigel Cameron, PhD, President, Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future, Research Professor of Bioethics, Associate Dean at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology

Co-Moderators: BioTech Nation Host Moira Gunn and Chief Correspondent David Ewing Duncan

Co-Organized by NPR Talk’s BioTech Nation

7: Interlude: Television Preview of New Smithsonian Networks

This fall, the new Smithsonian Networks television channel debuts on cable. As part of BioAgenda’s Arts and Science Program we are proud to screen a preview of the exciting programming being developed, followed by a Q&A with the head of the network, David Royle.

8: The BioAgenda 2007 Great Debate: Should the world permanently ban the genetic manipulation of human embryos – yes or no?

Two prominent leaders face-off in an old-fashioned debate. The debate was broadcast on NPR Talk’s BioTech Nation.

NO – Gregory Stock, PhD, Director, Program on Medicine, Technology and Society, UCLA; CEO, Signum Biosciences; Author, Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future
YES – Nigel Cameron, PhD, President, Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future, Research Professor of Bioethics, Associate Dean at Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology

Moderator: David Ewing Duncan, Summit Host

9: The role of government: should life sciences be regulated more, or less?

From restrictions of funding for stem cell research to the role of the Food and Drug Administration in developing and approving new drugs, what role should government and politics have in regulating life sciences?

Panel:
Merrill Goozner, Director, Integrity in Science Project, Center for Science in the Public Interest; author of The $800 Million Pill: The Truth Behind the Cost of New Drugs
Michael Zasloff, MD, PhD, Senior Consultant, Life Sciences Investment Banking; Founder of Magainin Pharmaceuticals; former Dean Georgetown University School of Medicine
M. James Barrett, PhD, General Partner, New Enterprise Associates
Gregory Stock, PhD, Director, Program on Medicine, Technology and Society, UCLA; CEO, Signum Biosciences; Author, Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future

Moderator: David Hamilton, former biotech reporter, The Wall Street Journal

10: Break, Screening of Excerpt from “Fantastic Voyage” (1966)

11: BioAgenda Challenge

BioAgenda challenges are brief talks delivered by leaders in life scientists who pose a problem that vexes them and proposes a solution.

Peter Hotez, MD, President, Sabin Vaccine Institute; Walter G. Ross Professor at George Washington University

12: Global Promise, Global Threat in A.D. 2032

This panel discusses politics and life sciences 25 years in the future – speakers who envision the best – and possibly the worst – for our planet.

Panel:
Michael Milken, Milken Family Foundation
Jennie Hunter-Cevera, President, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute; Chair, BioAgenda East Vanguard Committee
David Sinclair, PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology, Harvard University; Co-founder, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals and Genocea Inc.
Thomas Kalil, Special Asst to the Chancellor, UC Berkeley; Chair of the Global Health section of the Clinton Global Initiative; former science advisor to President Bill Clinton
Peter Hotez, MD, President, Sabin Vaccine Institute; Walter G. Ross Professor at George Washington University

Moderator: Stephen Petranek, Editor-in-Chief, Weider History Group; former Editor-in-Chief, Discover Magazine

13: Closing Remarks – David Ewing Duncan, Summit Host