UCSD, in collaboration with three local biomedical research institutions, has helped to create the San Diego Research Ethics Consortium, a group designed to support ethical behavior and research practices among scientists in stem cell and other research initiatives.
Karl Willert serves as the director of UCSD’s human embryonic stem cell core facility. The campus recently joined an ethics consortium that focuses on stem cell initiatives.
The consortium consists of four of the nation’s foremost research organizations in biological medicine, including the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, the Burnham Institute for Medical Research and the Scripps Research Institute. According to Michael Kalichman, director of the UCSD Ethics Program and the founding director of the consortium, the collective effort is one of only a few similar institutions across the country.
“”This is a unique program that provides not only shared resources, but the collective experience and judgment of four pre-eminent research institutions,”” Kalichman stated in a press release. “”The San Diego Research Ethics Consortium was created to ensure that our local research institutions meet the highest standards of responsible conduct of research.””
The goals of the partnership are to guard against ethical transgressions in scientific study, increase researchers’ awareness of the greater social implications of their work and help bridge the gap between the scientific and academic community and the public, Kalichman said.
“”We wanted to try to have a joint effort to examine the ethics issues and address them collectively,”” he said. “”We want to decrease the chance that we will make any missteps in how we approach the research we are doing.””
The joining of the institutions will complement a training program sponsored by the San Diego Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, a partnership among the same four institutions formed in March of last year. Close to one-third of the CRM program is specifically designed to instruct researchers in stem cell ethics, and is taught by Mary Devereaux, a bioethicist with the UCSD Research Ethics Program.
“”Conducting stem cell research is a privilege,”” Devereaux stated in a press release. “”The citizens of California have given us the resources. It is our duty to use the resources responsibly and according the highest scientific and ethical standards.””
The CRM was founded after the California Stem Cell and Cures Initiative – better known to voters as Proposition 71 – was passed into law in November 2004. The initiative created $3 billion in grants for stem cell research, for which the four heavyweight research institutions agreed to apply as one collective body. Per the new agreement, funding from Burnham, Scripps and Salk will be pooled together and added to existing UCSD resources.
Kalichman said that UCSD, having established a research ethics program in 1997, is using the opportunity to make these resources available to other institutions.
Along with the ethics of stem cells, students of the course will learn about other areas of the field, including social responsibility, treatment of human and animal subjects, record-keeping, collaborating and peer review.
According to Kalichman, one purpose of the consortium’s efforts is to inform the public about relevant issues facing researchers today, and he said that the group is in the process of planning seminars, conferences and workshops to discuss these questions.
The consortium will be hosting its premiere ethics conference on April 6 at the Salk Institute.