Academic conference dedicated to bioethical issues of genetic technologies was held in Moscow

During the work of the interdisciplinary platform, the country's leading scientists, representatives of the youth and authorities discussed the ethical challenges of Russian researchers' achievements in the field of genetics. The conference program included topics of bioethical aspects in medicine, genetic technologies in the development of agro-industrial complex, the principles of bioethics, as well as the modern legislation of the Russian Federation. It also included socio-humanistic issues concerning the development of genetics and modern technologies in ensuring biological safety of the Russian Federation. This conference’s main topics for discussion were “Bioethical aspects of genetic technologies in medicine” and “Genetic technologies in the development of agro-industrial complex”. Then two round-table discussions “The Principles of Bioethics, the Modern Legislation of the Russian Federation and Socio-Humanistic Issues of the Development of Genetics” and “Modern Technologies in Ensuring Biological Safety of the Russian Federation” ensued.

The development of genetic technologies opens prospects of discovering solutions to many problems in medicine, horticulture, animal husbandry and industrial microbiology thus raising bioethical issues, which require a complex socio-humanitarian expertise. The proactive strategies of the bioethical expertise are to become the basis for ethical and regulatory approaches and political discourses that prevent the non-specialists’ ungrounded alarmism and the underestimation of risks by experts. These strategies will also ensure the effectiveness of communication between the science and society, and they will contribute to the creation of a stable innovative environment for the development of genetic technologies. As for today, the federal program “Development of Scientific and Production Cooperation” of the national project “Science” caters for establishing more than 16 world-class scientific centers including 3 world-class centers for genomic research. These new facilities will provide opportunities for high-impact research of basic and exploratory nature.

Among the speakers at the academic conference were:

Alexander Yuryevich Prosekov, Corresponding Member of the RAS (Russian Academy of Sciences), Rector of KemSU;

Ivan Alekseevich Dyatlov, full member of the RAS, Head of the World-Class Center for Genomic Research Coordinating Agency, Head of the State Research Center for Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor);

Vladislav Stanislavovich Korsak, Doctor of Medical Science, Board Certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology, Highest Category, CEO of the International Center for Reproductive Medicine (ICRM), President of the Russian Association for Human Reproduction;

Vladislav Glebovich Budrik, Head of the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Poultry Processing Industry;

Zhanna Ivanovna Glinkina, a specialist in the field of preimplantation genetic testing, Chairman of the section “Reproductive genetics” under RAHR (The Russian Association for Human Reproduction), CEO of the LLC “Hi Tech Genetics”;

Ivan Fyodorovich Gorlov, full member of the RAS, Academic Director of the Volga Research Institute for Production and Processing of Meat and Dairy Products, Head of the Department of Food Production Technologies at Volgograd State Technical University;

Elena Georgyevna Grebenshchikova, Head of Department of Bioethics at Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University, director of the INION RAN’s Center of Scientific Information Studies in Science, Education and Technologies;

Vera Leonidovna Izhevskaya, deputy director for research in N. P. Bochkov Research Centre for Medical Genetics, head of the Russian Society of Medical Geneticists;

Olga Iosifovna Kubar, chief scientific officer of the Laboratory of Aetiology and Control of Viral Infections in Saint-Petersburg Pasteur Institute, member of Russian Committee for Bioethics under the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO (Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs), EFGCP’s board member.