Gene Drives: A Deliberative Workshop to Develop Frameworks for Research and Governance February 24-26, 2016

General Audience Summary

This award provides funding for a workshop that is to occur over three full days in the early winter of 2015-2016. The topic of the conference is the governance of gene drives. Gene drives are a subset of second generation genetic engineering technologies that are being developed with the aim of moving synthetic gene constructs into wild animal populations to protect, suppress or eliminate them, such as the suppression of mosquitoes that transmit malaria and dengue. Experts from four areas will participate in the workshop: Genetics and molecular biology, ecology and ecological modeling, political economy, and STS (including ethics). The PI plans for there to be equal representation across these areas; experts will include members of academia, practitioners and experts from government, NGOs, and industry. The structure of the workshop will be designed to engage participants in working together to generate analyses and summaries useful for future decision and policy making about gene drives. Following the workshop, papers will be finalized for publication in a special journal edition. A summary article will be published by the program committee that compares issues and system maps across the case studies and summarizes the key findings of the workshop. The program committee will also draft a shorter piece sub mitted for a high profile venue, such as a Nature or Science commentary.

Technical Summary

The proposed workshop will produce a typology of gene drives for more nuanced and productive conversations about governance. Specifically, participants will develop a draft typology of technologies, purposes, and contexts of gene drives, and a framework of issues and research needs for three key areas: ecological risk analysis, political economy analysis (including governance regimes), and ethical analysis. In order to cover a range of technologies, purposes, and issues, but yet be specific enough for productive dialogue, three case studies will be used to anticipate the social, ecological, economic, and ethical issues associated with gene drives. Integration of the natural and social sciences will be achieved through broad multidisciplinary participation and thinking about the cases and the systems in which they are embedded. Collaborative systems mapping will be used as a tool to assist in the integration of natural, social, and ethical variables, as it has been shown to be effective in creating an environment where complexities and uncertainties can be better seen and understood , and where participants are more willing to open up to alternative perspectives. The combination of the topic, approach, and outputs of the workshop make it unique, and it will contribute to deeper intellectual understanding of gene drives in societal contexts.