Rosario Isasi Receives Prestigious Presidential Fellowship Initiative Award from the Chinese Academy of Sciences

Rosario Isasi, J.D., MPH, research assistant professor in the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Department of Human Genetics at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, has won the competitive Chinese Academy of Sciences President’s International Fellowship Initiative. Her project is titled “From Stem Cells to Genomic Medicine: Fostering USA-China partnerships through science, policy, and ethics.” It seeks to strengthen and expand multidisciplinary partnerships between the University of Miami and China, with a focus on ethics and policy research in regenerative medicine and genomic medicine.

Isasi holds multiple appointments, including at the Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy, where she is Director of the Genetics, Ethics, and Policy Program, as well as the John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics and the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute.

Novel and disruptive genetic technologies are poised to impact individuals, communities and societies. Isasi’s research is devoted to identifying and analyzing their social, ethical, and policy dimensions.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences currently presides over the International Stem Cell Forum (ISCF), a consortium that brings together 16 countries and their funding agencies. Isasi is the Chair of the ISCF Ethics Working Party. She is an active leader in many other international initiatives, including as ethics advisor for the European Commission’s European Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Registry, and a member of the American Society for Human Genetics’ Task Force on Gene Editing.

Isasi believes that important progress will be made with multidisciplinary and translational collaborations in this area. Her appointment in four major institutes/departments underlines this approach as she seeks to create new programs and opportunities at the Miller School.

Tags: bioethics, China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation Department of Human Genetics, International Stem Cell Forum, John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics, Rosario Isasi