The panel, known as the Working Group on Criteria for Cell-based Therapies, was called together by Johns Hopkins' Program in Cell Engineering, Ethics and Public Policy (PCEEPP), with a grant from the Greenwall Foundation. PCEEPP is a joint program of the Berman Bioethics Institute and Johns Hopkins' Institute for Cell Engineering and is co-directed by Faden and Gearhart.
The Working Group was composed of eight internationally known experts from outside Johns Hopkins, the scientists and ethicists of the PCEEPP and one additional Hopkins faculty member. For the project, working group members were interviewed individually, the whole group met twice over the course of 22 months, and deliberations via e-mail, telephone, and meetings between individuals and small groups rounded out the process. Additional experts were consulted as needed to provide missing information as the panel developed their conclusions.
Members of the panel were Liza Dawson, Alison Bateman-House, Dawn Mueller Agnew, Hilary Bok, Dan Brock, Aravinda Chakravarti, Mark Greene, Patricia King, Stephen O'Brien, David Sachs, Kathryn Schill, Andrew Siegel, Davor Solter, Sonia Suter, Catherine Verfaillie, LeRoy Walters, Faden and Gearhart. A complete list of all authors' affiliations is available at http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press_releases .
All members of the panel were authors of the Fertility and Sterility paper
on safety issues related to initial clinical trials with human ES cells.
All panel members were also authors on
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Contact: Joanna Downer
jdowner1@jhmi.edu
410-614-5105
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
10-Nov-2003