September 2024 Newsletter

Our team was excited to return to the Cambridge Science Festival this year! We brought with us a new game that we created called Share Your Stance on Personal Genetics. The game was on exhibit between Sept 23-29 at the Cambridge Public Library and at our Carnival booth at the MIT Open Space on Sept 29. 

If you are interested in pilot testing the game in your classroom or at a community gathering, please contact Gill at gmcneil@pged.med.harvard.edu.

We are delighted to celebrate 10 years of collaboration with our colleagues at the Jackson Laboratory on their Teaching the Genome Generation™ (TtGG) program, made possible with support from the National Institute of Health’s Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) program. TtGG has empowered 300+ educators to bring modern human genetics into their classrooms through a professional development course that integrates laboratory methods, computational analysis, and bioethics discussions. Over the years, PGED has contributed curricula that explore ethical issues in genetics and led the bioethics strand of the TtGG course with educators in Maine and Connecticut. To access curricula and find out about upcoming in-person and virtual professional development opportunities, visit the TtGG website.  

The PGED team traveled from three states for a retreat this month. The retreat included visiting the lab of our Director Ting Wu in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School. PGED and the lab enjoyed lunch together and lively discussions during our first-ever pilot of our Share Your Stance game. We spent the bulk of our time together strategizing how to expand our team’s impact through a series of workshops developed and facilitated by the Scientific Citizenship Initiative (SCi). A special thank you to SCi Co-Director, Dan Pomeroy, for sharing your insights and energies with our team! 

Our Resource Highlight for this month is our Community Spotlight blogs! PGED’s Community Spotlight series showcases some of the remarkable people we’ve connected with through our mission to expand education and dialogue about genetics, health, and society. You can find all of our Spotlights to date on our website! Stay tuned for new spotlights coming soon.

Article: Who wins from nature’s genetic bounty? The billions at stake in a global ‘biopiracy’ battle (The Guardian). “As multinationals and researchers harvest rare organisms around the world, anger is rising in the global south over the unpaid use of lucrative genetic codes found on their land.”

Article: Their loved ones died after receiving pig organ transplants. The families have no regrets (NBC News). “Four people have received hearts or kidneys from pigs. Some of their relatives recount a roller coaster of hope and uncertainty.”

Opinion: Public health’s spirituality disconnect (Harvard Public Health). “Religion is a social determinant of health, too.”

Article: The burden of a gene (Science). “A variant called APOE4 is notorious for its link to Alzheimer’s. Can new insights into its function help stave off disease?”

Article: First Day of a ‘New Life’ for a Boy With Sickle Cell (New York Times). “Kendric Cromer, 12, is among the first patients to be treated with gene therapy just approved by the F.D.A. that many other patients face obstacles to receiving.”

Article: Doctors cured her sickle-cell disease. So why is she still in pain? (Nature).
“Gene and cell therapies bring fresh hope to people with genetic disorders, but recovery can be complex and long-term support remains sparse.”

Interested to help us expand the dialogue on genetics? 

Please consider making a gift to PGED to help us continue and grow our collaborations with educators, scientists, faith community leaders, storytellers, and more. 

We are grateful for any contribution you wish to make.

PGED is always looking for opportunities to engage with new audiences. Would you like to host a group to talk about the implications of personal genetics? What about a professional development workshop for teachers in your district?

We have staff in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Washington, DC – and we are willing to travel when possible. Contact us to find out about scheduling an event in your area!