Stem Cells, Spring 2006

March 19 - 23, 2006
Cambridge, Massachusetts

What exactly is a stem cell?
How do you turn it into something useful?
Is the technology being hyped?
Has the Bush Administration slowed scientific progress?
Will stem cell research lead to human cloning?
Is it ethical to harvest embryonic stem cells?
Is it ethical not to?

This boot camp is co-sponsored by:

The Program

As savvy journalists know, several fields of human endeavor are joining—or more often, colliding—on the fast-moving frontier of medical research and treatment using human embryonic stem cells. Sometimes it seems that to cover this well, you need to be not just a science or medical writer, but a religion writer, a specialist in law and the courts, and a political writer.

To help journalists make sense of it all, MIT’s Knight Science Journalism Fellowships is joining forces with the Harvard Stem Cell Institute to offer a short course in stem cells—from the basic science to the legal and ethical issues.

Boot camp will be intensive. You’ll be in a lecture room or lab all day every day. Some sessions will be at Harvard and some at MIT, including its affiliated Whitehead Institute. By the end of the week you’ll understand the science and the broader issues of stem cell research. You’ll be inoculated against the hype, but you’ll also have a solid understanding of why there is real hope in this field.

 

Faculty

	B.D. Colen, Harvard's Senior Communications Officer for University Science. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winning former newspaper medical writer, science editor, and columnist.
	Kevin Eggan, assistant professor of molecular and cellular biology at Harvard.
	Ruth Faden, professor of biomedical ethics and executive director of The Phoebe R. Berman Bioethics Institute at Johns Hopkins University.
	Richard Hynes, MIT professor for cancer research and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. He was a co-chair of the National Academy of Sciences’ committee that produced the 2005 report, Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research.
	Rudolf Jaenisch, professor of biology at MIT and founding member of the Whitehead Institute. He is a pioneer in making transgenic animals and a leader in therapeutic cloning, a process that can yield embryonic stem cells.
	M. William Lensch, research fellow in the division of hematology/oncology at Children's Hospital Boston. He is an advocate for an expanded public policy on stem cells.
	Jeffrey Macklis, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Medical School Center for Nervous System Repair.
	Douglas Melton, co-scientific director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, professor of natural sciences at Harvard University and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Melton has created some 28 embryonic stem cell lines that he makes available to researchers around the world.
	Boyce Rensberger, director of the Knight Science Journalism Fellowships at MIT. He has been a science writer for over 35 years.
	Michael Sandel, Harvard professor of government. He teaches “Justice,” one of the most popular courses in the history of Harvard, and is the author of numerous books on American law, political theory and moral philosophy. He will discuss how the stem cell debate fits into the larger political and moral context of the U.S
	David Scadden, professor of medicine at Harvard and co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. He is also the director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital that specifically focuses on using stem cell reserach to help understand and treat human diseases.
	Hazel Sive, MIT professor of biology and Whitehead Institute member. She works to understand the events and processes of embryonic development. Her lab has identified more than 50 genes involved in formation of the nervous system.

 

Schedule

A schedule of the week's lectures can be found here.

 

Fellows

A list of the journalists chosen to attend the boot camp can be found here.

 

What journalists have said about previous Boot Camps

"In my 22 years as a journalist, I have been to many workshops, conferences and seminars. This was one of the best—from the quality of speakers to the choice of topics to the overall organization."
Mary Ann Roser, Austin American-Statesman

"A++. I got a huge amount from it. I feel I have a number of highly useful new intellectual tools to use on the job."
Nils Bruzelius, The Washington Post

“Very informative—gives me great context in which to make decisions about stories.”
Karen Garloch, The Charlotte Observer

"It reinforced the instinct to question, be skeptical and get closer to the truth, rather than the spin."
Rachel Zimmerman, Wall Street Journal

"Intense, involving, incisive."
Marie McCullough, The Philadelphia Inquirer

“It was an invaluable opportunity and one that comes around extraordinarily rarely for journalists—a chance to learn and grow and put into perspective critical pieces of the medical/science puzzle.”
Michelle Cortez, Bloomberg News

"Superb! Fantastic! A very fruitful week which will affect my daily work immediately."
Stephanie Nano, Associated Press

Who is eligible?

Twelve journalists will be chosen. They will join the ten Knight Fellows already in residence at MIT. Applicants may be journalists who already cover science, medicine or health, or journalists who wish to prepare themselves to cover stem cells. Applicants may be reporters, editors, writers or producers for any medium and must have at least five years of full-time experience in journalism. Applicants may be from any country.
Details

If selected, we will reimburse you for up to $500 of your travel expenses to Cambridge and pay for your hotel room and most meals. Stem Cell Boot Camp begins with a dinner on the evening of Sunday, March 19 and runs through March 23. Participants are required to attend all sessions.