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ENTER TO WIN! “SHARE YOUR STANCE” CARD DECK
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PGED is launching our conversation-sparking card game! Share Your Stance on Personal Genetics (SYS) is PGED’s first tabletop conversation starter. SYS is an opinion-sharing card game for curious explorers of science, policy, technology, and identity in the genomic age.
Enter the drawing for a chance to win a free, professionally printed card deck! PGED will send card decks to five lucky winners, who will be chosen on April 14th and contacted for their mailing information. We hope you can use the cards for your DNA Day celebrations!
Free ‘download & play’ game materials are available on our website! We will also be offering a limited number of professionally-printed card decks soon. Stay tuned to get your card deck when they’re available!
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PGED AT AWESOME CON IN WASHINGTON, DC
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Rob will be hosting a PGED Exhibitor table at Awesome Con, billed as “Washington DC’s Comic Con” which brings “over 60,000 fans together with their favorite stars from across comics, movies, tv, toys, games, and more”. Rob will be showcasing our program resources, sparking conversation through our “Share Your Stance” game, and inviting attendees to share their views on genetics on our response board.
If you are planning to be at Awesome Con, stop by and say hello!
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This month, Rob participated in the annual meeting of the American Association for Biological Anthropologists (AABA) in Baltimore MD. In his roles as AABA Education Committee co-chair, Rob co-organized a networking breakfast, an outreach event at a local children’s museum, and an art, culture and science engagement symposium (where he piloted PGED’s “Share Your Stance” game). He also attended a workshop and a community event discussing video resources to support sharing and learning about human diversity, race, and racism. The conference was a rich experience that provided many opportunities to share PGED’s work with the biological anthropology community!
Also this month, members of PGED led an online discussion with future clergy, joined author Shoumita Dasgupta for a conversation at her book launch event, presented our work and played Share Your Stance with graduate students in genetic counseling and biomedical research, hosted virtual community chats, and presented a plenary talk at the Genetic Society of America’s fly meeting.
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Check out where we will be next month:
- April 2 | North Haven Memorial Library in North Haven, CT
- April 4-6 | Awesome Con in Washington, DC
- April 9 | Horace Furness High School in Philadelphia, PA
- April 15 | Fairfield Branch Library in Fairfield, CT
- April 21 | New London Public Library in New London, CT
- April 26 | MIT Museum in Cambridge, MA
- April 27 | Rockville Science Day in Rockville, MD
Visit our Events Calendar for more information about our upcoming events.
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PGED’s Community Spotlight series showcases some of the remarkable people we have connected with through our mission to expand education and dialogue about genetics, health, and society. You can find all of our current and future Spotlights on our website!
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Madelene Loftin is the Director of Educator Professional Learning at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. Madelene is an innovative and engaging educator who shares her excitement about science with students and helps to shape the next generation of science educators through teacher professional development workshops.
PGED met Madelene through the NIH Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) community. Immediately, we knew we were kindred spirits. In the summer of 2019, Madelene and her Educational Outreach team at HudsonAlpha hosted PGED to deliver a three-day workshop for Alabama educators.
Read Madelene’s Community Spotlight
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Celebrate DNA Day on April 25th with Share Your Stance on Personal Genetics (SYS)! SYS is a great way to engage students, community members, family, and friends in discussing how genetics impacts people’s lives.
SYS isn’t merely speculation about the future—the game covers events happening in our world, today. Players discuss their ideas and questions about some of today’s most pressing topics, such as climate change, biohacking, and data privacy.
Access free ‘download & play’ SYS materials and enter the drawing for a chance to win a free card deck before DNA Day!
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PERSONAL GENETICS IN THE NEWS
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Article: Hoping to revive mammoths, scientists create ‘woolly mice’ (National Public Radio). “Scientists have genetically engineered mice with some key characteristics of an extinct animal that was far larger — the woolly mammoth.”
Article: How a pig’s kidney gave a New Hampshire man his life back (WBUR/NPR). “Andrews is the second patient at Massachusetts General Hospital to undergo this experimental procedure, and one of only two people in the world currently walking around with an organ that came from a pig.”
Article: Mississippi Passes Bill Banning Lab-Grown Meat (WIRED). “Three states have now passed legislation making it illegal to manufacture, sell, or distribute cultivated meat.”
Article: Mutated DNA Restored to Normal in Gene Therapy Advance (New York Times). “The small study in patients with a rare disorder that causes liver and lung damage showed the potential for precisely targeted infusions.”
Article: Sex Determination: It’s in the Genes—Sometimes (The Scientist). “Animals across the tree of life have developed a mind-boggling variety of ways to become male or female.”
Opinion: A New Scientific Field Is Recasting Who We Are and How We Got That Way (New York Times). “The new field is called sociogenomics, a fusion of behavioral science and genetics that I have been closely involved with for over a decade. Though the field is still in its infancy, its philosophical implications are staggering. It has the potential to rewrite a great deal of what we think we know about who we are and how we got that way.”
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Enjoying our new Share Your Stance on Personal Genetics game? Our team loves creating resources that make an impact in classrooms, community spaces, and beyond. Consider giving a gift to show some love for SYS and other PGED resources in our Resource Hub.
All donations help keep our resources freely available online. We are grateful for your generosity.
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Please note that 15% of donations pays for overhead which allows us to do the work that we do from our home in the Department of Genetics at Harvard Medical School.
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WANT TO PLAN AN EVENT TOGETHER? LET’S DO IT!
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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, Colorado, and Washington, DC – and we are willing to travel when possible. Contact us to find out about scheduling an event in your area!
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Copyright © 2025 PGED, Harvard Medical School. All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
pged@pged.med.harvard.edu
www.pged.org
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