Global Observatory International Summit

May 21-23, 2025

International Summit Global Observatory for Genome Editing

In-Person and Virtual Attendance

May 21-23, 2025

International Summit Global Observatory for Genome Editing

Disruptive Promises, Democratic Futures.

The Global Observatory’s 2025 Summit foregrounds questions about biotechnologies that may alter the meaning of being human. Genome editing, especially of the human germline, raises fundamental questions of the dignity and integrity of human life. Governance concerns once focused on the escape of potentially risky lab-created organisms. Today the more urgent concerns relate to transgressing moral boundaries and violating human integrity. How should we respond?

2025 Speakers

  • George Daley

    George Daley

    Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Caroline Shields Walker Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School

  • Alondra Nelson

    Alondra Nelson

    Harold F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study; former Acting Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

  • Kevin Esvelt

    Kevin Esvelt

    Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences, MIT Media Lab

  • Shai Lavi

    Shai Lavi

    Director of Van Leer Jerusalem Institute, Professor of Law, Tel-Aviv University

  • Daniel Wikler

    Daniel Wikler

    Mary B. Saltonstall Professor of Ethics and Population Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Emeritus

  • Roli Mathur

    Roli Mathur

    Head, Indian Council of Medical Research Bioethics Unit

  • Tay Salimullah

    Tay Salimullah

    Partner, 4BIO Capital Managing; General Partner, Renovamen Advisory LLC

  • Philip Campbell

    Philip Campbell

    Former Editor-in-Chief, Nature

  • Rosemarie Garland-Thomson

    Rosemarie Garland-Thomson

    Professor of English and Bioethics, Emory University

  • Kiran Musunuru

    Kiran Musunuru

    Professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

  • Erik Sontheimer

    Erik Sontheimer

    Pillar Chair in Biomedical Research and Professor, University of Massachusetts Medical School

  • Katie Hasson

    Katie Hasson

    Associate Director at Center for Genetics and Society

  • Fyodor Urnov

    Fyodor Urnov

    Professor of Molecular Therapeutics, Scientific Director of Innovative Genomics Institute, UC Berkeley

  • Glenn Cohen

    Glenn Cohen

    Faculty Director, James A. Attwood and Leslie Williams Professor of Law, and Deputy Dean, Harvard Law School

  • Durhane Wong-Rieger

    Durhane Wong-Rieger

    President and CEO, Canadian Organization for Rare Disorders

  • Jane Qiu

    Jane Qiu

    Award-winning independent science journalist

  • Patricia Williams

    Patricia Williams

    University Distinguished Professor of Law and Humanities, Northeastern Law School

  • Siobhán O’Sullivan

    Siobhán O’Sullivan

    Executive Director, Royal Irish Academy; Chair, Steering Committee for Human Rights in the fields of Biomedicine and Health, Council of Europe

  • Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz

    Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz

    Professor of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology

  • Victor Dzau

    Victor Dzau

    President, National Academy of Medicine

  • James Keenan

    James Keenan

    Director of The Jesuit Institute, Boston College

  • Christiane Woopen

    Christiane Woopen

    Hertz Professor for Life Ethics and Director of the Center for Life Ethics, Bonn University

  • Sarojini Nadimpally

    Sarojini Nadimpally

    Co-Founder, SAMA - Resource Group for Women and Health, India

  • John McQuillan

    John McQuillan

    Triumvirate Environmental Inc.

  • George Church

    George Church

    Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics, Harvard Medical School; Director of the National Institutes of Health Center of Excellence in Genomic Science

  • Arnold Eisen

    Arnold Eisen

    Chancellor Emeritus, Jewish Theological Seminary

  • Vardit Ravitsky

    Vardit Ravitsky

    President and CEO, The Hastings Center for Bioethics

  • Jennifer Herdt

    Jennifer Herdt

    Gilbert L. Stark Professor of Christian Ethics, Yale University’s Divinity School

  • Jonathan D. Kahn

    Jonathan D. Kahn

    Professor of Law and Biology, Northeastern University

  • Vijay Chandru

    Vijay Chandru

    National Centre for Biological Sciences, Centre for Brain Research, Bangalore, India

  • Judy Norsigian

    Judy Norsigian

    Co-founder, Leadership Council, Executive Advisory Board, Global Projects Committee

  • Christian O'Reilly

    Christian O'Reilly

    Playwright and Screenwriter

  • Jacob Hanna

    Jacob Hanna

    Senior Scientist and Professor in Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science

Our Sponsors

This Summit is made possible through the financial support of

Summit Program Overview

Day 1 | Wed, May 21 4:00PM - 9:30PM

Day 2 | Thurs, May 22 9:00AM - 6:30PM

Day 3 | Fri, May 23 9:00AM - 8:00PM

2025 Organizers

  • Katherine Littler

    Katherine Littler

    Co-Lead, Global Health Ethics and Governance Unit, World Health Organization

  • Kaushik Sunder Rajan

    Kaushik Sunder Rajan

    Faculty Director of the Pozen Family Center for Human Rights, Professor of Anthropology, University of Chicago

  • Douglas Kysar

    Douglas Kysar

    Joseph M. Field Professor of Law, Yale Law School

  • Orlando (Carter) Snead

    Orlando (Carter) Snead

    Charles E. Rice Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame Law School

  • Françoise Baylis

    Françoise Baylis

    University Research Professor, Dalhousie University; incoming President-Elect of the Royal Society of Canada

  • John Evans

    John Evans

    Associate Dean of Social Sciences, UC San Diego

  • Jahnavi Phalkey

    Jahnavi Phalkey

    Founding Director, Science Gallery Bengaluru

  • Matthew Porteus

    Matthew Porteus

    Sutardja Chuk Professor of Definitive and Curative Medicine, Stanford University

  • Carrie Wolinetz

    Carrie Wolinetz

    Senior Principal, Lewis-Burke Associates; Former Senior Advisor at NIH

  • Peter Mills

    Peter Mills

    Director, PHG Foundation

  • David Winickoff

    David Winickoff

    Senior Policy Analyst, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

  • Timothy Hunt

    Timothy Hunt

    Alliance for Regenerative Medicine

  • Laurence Lwoff

    Laurence Lwoff

    Head of Human Rights and Biomedicine Division, Council of Europe

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