Upcoming Dinner Dialogue Events
The Duke Initiative for Science & Society is hosting upcoming Dinner Dialogue events. The Dinner Dialogue series aims to spark a meaningful and ongoing conversation about the broader ethical implications of scientific and technological progress at Duke and in the world.
On March 26 from 7 until 8:30 p.m., Dr. Don Fox will present " Fighting Disease and Food Supply Sustainability With Genetically Modified Insects."
Each year, approximately 700,000 human deaths are caused by insect-borne diseases. Insect pathogens also dramatically decrease crop yields, which is an enormous problem given forecasts that worldwide crop production needs to increase 70% by 2050. With the advent of precision genetic engineering to produce Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO), new strategies to potentially control insect populations are becoming easier to implement. We will discuss how insects can be genetically modified, examples of such modifications in disease control and agriculture, differences in perception of GMO by scientists and the public, and the challenges going forward.
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On March 27 from 7 until 8:30, Dr. Beth Sullivan will present "Junk DNA, competition of the human genome and human health implications."
In 2003, the human genome was announced as completed, that is, it has been sequenced, assembled, and important functional elements such as genes had been identified and annotated. However, in reality, up to 20% of the genome remains incomplete and is excluded from the human genome assembly. We will discuss what these excluded regions are, the sequences they contain, why these regions are considered "junk DNA", and important functional information about these regions that we lack and that has implications for human health and disease.