PhD studentship: The ethical aspects of organoids at Leuven

The application deadline is the 15^th of March, 2019.

Host institution: Centre for biomedical ethics and law, Faculty of Medicine, University of Leuven (Belgium)

In 2016 and 2017 the University of Leuven (KUL) was listed by Thomson Reuters in the annual list of Europe’s most innovative universities. The Centre for Biomedical Ethics and Law (KUL-CBMER) is part of the University of Leuven and is a renowned research centre in Europe with expertise in ethics, law, philosophy and close links with various medical and care disciplines. You will be part of the broader research consortium Organovir.  Organovir is an Innovative Training Network (ITN) that focuses on the use of organoid technology and will provide 15 Early Stage Researchers (ESRs). 

Project description

This project focuses on the ethical and social challenges of organoids (mini organs), with due attention to implications for policy. During this project, you will be focussing 1) on the ethical status of organoids and 2) on the implications of the use of organoids regarding the replacement and reduction of animals in experimental medical research.  This will be done by investigating the existing literature and setting up empirical tools to explore the attitudes and opinions of different stakeholders on the development of adaptive structures.  A cooperative analysis on ethical policies will be conducted in different European countries. This project also includes two secondments: one with the National (Dutch) Institute for Public Health and the Environment, and one with the Dutch Society for the Replacement of Animal Testing .

You will be guided during your research project by Kris Dierickx, professor of biomedical ethics at KU Leuven.

Requirements

Organovir is looking for research candidates who are highly motivated and enthusiastic with a flexible, pro-active team spirit and a recent Master degree in the field of (bio)ethics, philosophy, life/health sciences, biology, social or political sciences with interest in the ethics and governance of new biomedical technology. Experience with qualitative research methods is an advantage. The candidate is required to be proficient in the English language and should be in the first four years (full-time equivalent) of his/her research career.

In addition, the applicant should not, at the time that he/she is selected by the host institution, have resided or carried out their work and/or studies in the country of the host institution for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to their recruitment.   

What we offer 

The selected candidates will be enrolled in a KU Leuven PhD program on a full-time basis for 36 months, and will receive a competitive salary in accordance with the EC MSCA regulations for early stage researchers.  Efforts will be made to acquire additional funding for the 4th PhD year.

The starting date of the research project is the 1^st of September 2019.

Apply now

Job: Research Fellowship (Socio-Legal) in the Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society, The University of Edinburgh

Salary:	£32,548 to £38,833 (UE07)
Hours:	Full Time
Contract Type:	Fixed-Term/Contract

Placed on:	15th June 2018
Closes:	16th July 2018
Job Ref:	044149

The Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society is seeking an experienced researcher in the field of socio-legal studies to contribute to scholarly and engagement activities within this cross-College, cross-School initiative. The Centre, supported by the Wellcome Trust, seeks to effect lasting change in how we understand and influence the dynamic relationship between biomedicine, individuals and society.

Working closely with the Centre’s Executive Team, the successful candidate will develop and undertake an empirical socio-legal research project concerned with the legal consciousness of stakeholders in a health research context, such as in the realm of reproductive medicine, data sharing or clinical trials. You will also contribute to cross-cutting projects involving other members of the Centre.

The work demands close attention to detail, the ability to prioritise, identify and achieve deadlines and use good judgement and initiative. A positive collaborative attitude is also essential.

The successful candidate will have demonstrated success in research, supported by a track record of strong relevant publications. In addition, applicants are invited to explore how their research interests complement the existing strengths of the Executive Team and their respective Schools.

The post is available from 1^st September 2018, full-time and fixed-term for 24 months.

Please include your CV and a supporting statement with details of how you meet the knowledge, skills and experience required for this post.

Informal enquiries may be directed to Professor Graeme Laurie (Graeme.Laurie [at] ed.ac.uk).

Job: Research Fellow at University of Edinburgh – Centre for Medical Informatics

Salary: £32,004 to £38,183
Hours: Full Time
Contract Type: Fixed-Term/Contract
Placed on: 1st June 2017
Closes: 3rd July 2017
Job Ref: 040078

We are seeking a dynamic research fellow to undertake research activities on the Wellcome Trust Seed Award “Patienthood and Participation in the Digital Era”. Responsibilities will include design, data collection, analysis, and publication; assisting with the development and implementation of a programme of public engagement in conjunction with the research; and contributing to new research initiatives arising from the Award, including the development of grant applications for related projects.

Applicants must have a PhD (or near completion) in bioethics or related social science / humanities discipline (or relevant equivalent experience). Excellent project management and organisational skills with the ability to work independently under appropriate supervision is essential.

The post is full time (35 hours per week), available from July 2017 for 12 months and based in The University of Edinburgh’s Usher Institute of Population Health Sciences and Informatics.

Please include your CV and a supporting statement with details of how you meet the knowledge, skills and experience required for this post.

Informal enquiries may be made to Dr Sarah Chan at Sarah.Chan [at] ed.ac.uk

Job: Legal/Regulatory Senior Policy Analyst at the PHG Foundation

Location: Cambridge
Salary: £35,000 to £45,000 p.a. (depending on experience) plus benefits
Full time or part time (min 28 hours p.w.)
Fixed Term – 3 years

Cambridge-based health policy think-tank the PHG Foundation seeks a talented and enthusiastic professional with a legal background who is passionate about seeing biomedical research translated effectively into healthcare. Working as part of a multidisciplinary team, your role will be to provide sound legal and regulatory analysis for the Foundation’s health policy projects.

We are open-minded about background, but you must have a good first degree in law, social science, philosophy or similar subject; an excellent grasp of the legal, regulatory and ethical landscape around healthcare, preferably genetics/genomics; and first class analytical, drafting and communication skills.  A postgraduate qualification in medical law, ethics or similar would be a distinct advantage but, most importantly, you must be able to transfer your academic grounding into actionable policy applications.

You will be an excellent networker and have the personal qualities to work creatively and effectively in a small team of highly-motivated colleagues.

For an informal discussion please contact Alison Hall alison.hall [at] phgfoundation.org Tel: 01223 761900

The deadline for applications is 21^st June 2017 (please note – previous applicants need not apply)

Interviews will be held in Cambridge on 10^th July 2017•

Job: Postdoctoral Fellow in Ethics and Information Governance at Oxford

University of Oxford – Nuffield Department of Population Health (NDPH)
Salary: £31,076 to £38,183 per annum (pro-rata for part-time) (Grade 7)

Based within the Nuffield Department of Population Health, The Ethox Centre is an internationally recognised multidisciplinary bioethics research centre and is a vibrant and intellectually exciting place to work. We are seeking a Postdoctoral Fellow to join the Oxford BRC (Biomedical Research Centre) Ethics group and the Clinical Informatics and Big Data Cross-cutting theme at Ethox.

You will play a leading role in developing, delivering and evaluating an ethically robust governance framework for capture, application and management of consents, information sharing and transparency within and across organisations. You will also provide support to the BRC and undertake research in ethics and governance across the Trust.

You will have, or be nearing completion of a PhD/DPhil (in ethics, law, bioethics or a related field) and have a research record appropriate to career stage and evidenced by relevant publications. You will also have excellent communication and interpersonal skills and the ability to work as part of an interdisciplinary team.

The post is full-time (part time considered) and fixed-term for 3 years.

Closing date for applications is 12.00 noon on Thursday 20 April 2017. Interviews are planned to take place the during week commencing 1st May 2017.

 

Conference: Health Law and the UK: Where Now After Brexit?

Thursday 4th May 2017
Birmingham Law School, University of Birmingham

As policy  makers and lawyers grapple with the aftermath of the EU Referendum this conference explores the  implications and  challenges of Brexit for UK Health Law.  Papers will include ‘Brexit: an opportunity to rationalise bioethics governance in the U.K.?; the impact of Brexit for  public health law; “Clinical Trials in the UK: Where Now After Brexit”;  the implications of Brexit for reproductive choice; “Open for Business – Risks to Public Health from International Commerce After Brexit”; “Research Regulation: A leap in the Dark”; privacy health and data protection post Brexit; and “Pharmaceutical regulation: another fine mess they’ve got us into”.

Speakers include:

Professor Emma Cave, Durham Law School

Professor John Coggon, Bristol Law School

Dr Mairead Enright, Birmingham Law School

Professor Graeme Laurie, University of Edinburgh

Dr Samantha Halliday, Leeds Law School

Professor Tamara Hervey, Sheffield Law Schools

Dr Mark Flear, Queens University Belfast Law School

Professor Jean McHale, Centre for Health Law Science and Policy, Birmingham Law School

Professor Jonathan Montgomery, Faculty of Laws UCL

Professor Chris Newdick,  School of Law, University of Reading

Professor Keith Syrett, Cardiff Law School

Dr Mark Taylor, Sheffield Law School

Registration is now open. The full programme is available here.

For further information contact Jean McHale – j.v.mchale [at] bham.ac.uk

Conference: The British Transplantation Society Living Donor Forum and Winter Ethics Symposium 2016

November 24 at 9:30 AM – November 25 at 5:00 PM

The BTS is delighted to announce the dates of two of the Society’s established annual meetings. Both events will take place at Mary Ward House, London on consecutive days so that delegates can choose to attend for one or both days, depending upon their areas of interest.

Winter Ethics Symposium 24 November

ORGAN DONATION AND TRANSPLANTATION RESEARCH DESIGN: PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES AND PATIENTS RIGHTS

“This year our focus is organ donation and transplantation research design. The symposium will draw on NHS Blood and Transplant’s published strategic research and development plan and the work of the National Institute for Health Research advisory group INVOLVE which was established in 1996 to support active public involvement in NHS, public health and social care research.

The programme brings together professional expertise and personal experience in the field of public involvement in research. It will provide insight into how organ donation and transplantation research is identified, prioritised, designed, conducted and disseminated and explore the ethical challenges facing everyone participating in research for patient benefit.”

09.30 Registration and Coffee

09.50 Welcome and Introduction

Session 1: RESEARCH, RETENTION and RIGHTS Chair: Antonia Cronin

10.00 An interview with David and Hazel Thewlis

10.40 Debate: This house believes there is not enough patient/public involvement in organ donation and transplantation research design

10.45 PRO Hugh Whittall

11.00 CON Brian Davidson

11.30 COFFEE

Session 2: KEY NOTE LECTURES Chair: Anne-Marie Slowther

12.00 Patient and Public Involvement in Research Design Simon Denegri

12.30 NHSBT Research and Development strategy Nick Watkins

13.00 LUNCH Session 3: ETHICAL ISSUES IN RESEARCH DESIGN Chair: Anya Adair

14.00 Case 1: Deceased donor abdominal transplantation research Peter Friend

14.30 Case 2: Deceased donor cardio-thoracic transplantation research Stephen Large

15.00 Case 2: Cell Therapy John Casey

15.30 Debate revisited

16.00 Close

There is a reduced rate of £35 for students.

Living Donor Forum 25 November

“This year’s living kidney donor forum theme is “Diversity and Complexity in Living Donor transplantation”. There will be interactive sessions to explore attitudes towards and experiences of the living kidney sharing schemes, highlighting complex scenarios to help shape future practice, and also multidisciplinary case-based discussions around donors who may be deemed higher risk, looking at current evidence to help inform decision making.

The living liver donor forum will address technical considerations for the donor and recipient, drawing on lessons learnt from the Eastern experience. This will be followed by the ever-popular interactive case discussions and finally we have guest speakers to discuss ethical dilemmas and to offer an Eastern solution to the lack of progress in living donor liver transplantation.

There will be active participation for delegates at both events with interactive sessions, keypad voting and debates.”

Theatre: Genesis – the ethics of genetic testing for disease pre-disposition

11th – 12th November The Lowry

15th – 19th November Soho Theatre

22nd November Beggar’s Theatre Cumbria

23rd November Preston Continental

24th November Cast Doncaster

Rachel is a leading geneticist. A predictor, a planner, a rationalist.

She identifies gene mutations that increase the risk of developing breast cancer – allowing action to be taken before the disease has even had chance to develop. Whether it is surgery or a course of drugs, it is all about prevention.

But on discovering that she and her daughter might be carrying a gene mutation themselves, Rachel starts to wonder if predicting illness through science throws up more questions than it can answer.

When science offers you the chance to look into the future of your own health, or your family’s, would you always want to know?

Developed in collaboration with Manchester-based charity Prevent Breast Cancer, this daring new play by acclaimed playwright Frazer Flintham explores their pioneering research and the complex human dilemmas around preventative medicine.

Ticket details available from the company’s website.

International Summer School: Pluripotent Stem Cells

September, 28th – October, 2nd, 2015 

Studienhaus Gut Schönwag near Munich, Germany.

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 10th May 2015

The Institute Technology • Theology • Natural Sciences (TTN) at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich organizes an international scientific summer school, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, on the subject: “Pluripotent Stem Cells. Scientific practice of stem cell research: ethical, legal and social aspects and discourses”

Human stem cell research is one of the so-called “hope-, hype- and fear-technologies”. Shinya Yamanaka’s development of a technique to reprogram somatic cells to ‘induced pluripotent’ stem cells in 2006 relighted new and intense ethical and legal discussions to the established embryonic
stem cell debate. Especially the recourse to developmental biological totipotency as criterion for the evaluation of the ethical, legal and ontological status of stem cells is being challenged by new techniques to create possibly totipotent entities.

The aim of this summer school is to provide a context for international and multi-disciplinary dialogue in order to reconstruct the current debates and their background on stem cell research in Germany and Great Britain and to discuss foundations for a more consistent ethical evaluation and legal framing of the life sciences.

Comparing the cultural differences of the debates, the ethical evaluations, and the juridical frameworks in the two countries is productive as they are considered as counterparts: While in Great Britain a utilitarian, case-based tradition of ethical and political decision-making is supposed to have led to one of the most liberal regulations of embryonic stem cell research, the perseverative discussion of the status and the dignity of the embryo in Germany might have led to its strict but inconsistent regulation of research involving embryos. These attributions are to be scrutinized and a deeper understanding of the state of research and debate as well as their societal and cultural preconditions is to be developed by the investigation of the contrast.

The program includes talks of the participants and the speakers, moderated discussions, insights in the practice of stem cell research through the visit of a laboratory and the presentation of a research project as well as cultural evening events. Main subject areas will be:

• State of the molecular biological debate
• Epistemological and ethical status of stem cells
• Philosophical and sociological reflections on life sciences research
• Ethical, legal and social aspects of the stem cell debate in Great Britain and Germany
• Recommendations for a European and International stem cell regulation

Speakers

Prof. Dr. Peter Dabrock Systematic Theology (Ethics), Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg; Member of the German Ethics Council
Prof. Dr. Christine Hauskeller Philosophy and Sociology, University of Exeter; Member of the Central Ethics Committee on stem cell research of the Robert-Koch-Institut
Prof. Dr. Jens Kersten Public Law and Administrative Law, LMU Munich; Chairman of the scientific advisory committee of the Institute TTN
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Winkler Molecular Neurology, University Clinic of Erlangen; Spokesperson of the Bavarian research association “Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells”

We invite up to 12 young researchers from all areas of the field to present and discuss their work within an interdisciplinary group of young scientists and a team of high profile experts from the different disciplines in the field. Applications should contain an abstract of about 500 words describing your paper, a CV and a list of publications. Application deadline: May 10th, 2015

Travel and accomodation expenses will be reimbursed. After the conference, participants are expected to submit their revised paper as a book chapter for which a honorarium of 300 Euro will be paid. We also offer a free child care during the summer school, please contact us in advance in case of interest.

For further information and submission of applications please contact Anja Pichl: anja.pichl@elkb.de Further information is also available here.

Job: Policy Analyst (Biomedical Law and Regulation)

Policy Analyst (Biomedical Law and Regulation)
PHG Foundation

Cambridge, UK
£35 – 40K per annum plus benefits
Full time or part time (min 28 hours p.w.)

The PHG Foundation is looking for a talented and enthusiastic professional with a legal background who is passionate about seeing biomedical research translated effectively into healthcare. Working as part of a multidisciplinary team, your role will be to provide sound legal and regulatory analysis for the Foundation’s health policy projects.

We are open-minded about background, but you must have a good first degree in law, social science, philosophy or similar subject; an excellent grasp of the legal, regulatory and ethical landscape around genomics and health; and first class analytical, drafting and communication skills. A postgraduate qualification in medical law, ethics or similar would be a distinct advantage but, most importantly, you must be able to transfer your academic grounding into actionable policy applications.

You will be an excellent networker and have the personal qualities to work creatively and effectively in a small team of highly-motivated colleagues who are committed to developing the PHG Foundation as an international health policy institute.

The Foundation is an equal opportunity employer.

The deadline for applications is 5pm, Thursday 14 November 2013. Interviews will be held in Cambridge on 25 November 2013.