Biography
Gregory Stock, a biotech entrepreneur, bioethicist, best-selling author and public communicator, is a leading authority on the broad impacts of genomic and other advanced technologies in the life sciences. He founded the influential Program on Medicine, Technology and Society at UCLA’s School of Medicine in 1997 and served as its director for ten years while leading a broad effort to explore critical technologies poised to impact humanity’s future and reshape medical science. Through a series of high-profile symposia, lectures, and media appearances, Stock has catalyzed broad public debate about the social and public policy implications of today’s revolution in molecular genetics and bioinformatics, and about how most effectively to translate progress in basic science into improved therapeutics and healthcare. Stock is a strong advocate for aggressive biomedical funding and research, and for cautious governmental oversight. In 2004, Stock co-founded Signum Biosciences, a Princeton University spinoff created to develop a new class of anti-inflammatories and therapeutics for neurodegeneration. He served as the CEO of Signum for 6 years directing efforts there to develop promising pharma candidates for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Stock has been an invited speaker to many academic, government and business conferences. He sits on the editorial board of the American Journal of Bioethics, The Journal of Evolution and Technology, and Rejuvenation Research and was invited to submit an Advisory Memo to the President on the challenges ahead. Stock has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, MIT Tech Review and Lancet. He makes regular appearances on television and radio, including CNN, PBS, NPR, Bloomberg and the BBC and frequently debates biotech policy with Francis Fukuyama, Jeremy Rifkin, Leon Kass, Daniel Callahan, Bill McKibben, George Annas and other prominent voices who would rein in biomedical research. Stock’s book, Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future with Houghton Mifflin won the prestigious Kistler Book Prize for Science books and was nominated for a Wired Rave Award. Among his other books are Engineering The Human Germline: An Exploration of the Science and Ethics of Altering the Genes We Pass to Our Children with Oxford University Press, Metaman: The Merging of Humans and Machine into a Global Superorganism with Simon & Schuster, and the best selling, Book of Questions with Workman Press, which has sold over 2 million copies, been translated into 18 languages and is now in its 61st printing. Sequels to that book include The Book of Questions: Business, Politics, and Ethics, The Book of Questions: Love and Sex, and The Kids’ Book of Questions as well as a new book that will explore how future technology will challenge our values and alter our lives. Gregory Stock serves on the California Advisory Committee on Stem Cells and Reproductive Cloning and is the Associate Director of the Center for Life Science Policy Studies, a policy think tank at the University of California at Berkeley. He serves on the boards of Signum Biosciences and Napo Pharmaceuticals, a private pharmaceutical company with an important drug approaching approval for diarrhea associated with HIV retroviral therapy and Cholera. He has a Doctorate in Biophysics from Johns Hopkins University and an MBA from Harvard University.
Speech Topics
Personalized Healthcare
When Will It Be Here and What Will It Look Like?
From Human Brain to Global Consciousness - The Melding of Human and Machine
We stand at a defining moment not only in human history but in the history of life. It’s a big claim, but Dr. Stock not only will convince you of it, he will bring you a new perspective on the challenges now buffeting us. His presentation is a provocative blend of analysis of the world of today and extrapolation into the dizzying, yet not-too-distant future. He looks at the immense implications of the human genome project, showing how it will transform medicine, human reproduction, and eventually humanity itself. He discusses the implications of machine intelligence and the rapidly spreading Internet. He shows why global culture and economic integration are a robust, positive development that is virtually inevitable. He provides an optimistic, hopeful look towards an amazing future. This talk will leave you with a new perspective on the problems we face, and a sense of wonder about where we are heading and how soon we may get there.
From Pharmacogenetics to Genetic Design - The Human Genome Project and Humanity's Future
The Human Genome Project is opening a new era in human history. Dr. Stock not only explores the profound economic and social implications of our deciphering of human biology, he uses concrete detail to drive home how it will alter our lives. Stock looks at how genetic testing using DNA-chips will affect the Insurance and Pharmaceutical industries. He discusses how Genomics and the Internet will interact to bring a revolution in medicine. He explores the coming possibilities of genetic engineering, designer children, and human artificial chromosomes. Stock is a pragmatist when it comes to managing these emerging possibilities, arguing that a free market is the best way of reaping their benefits. His vision is refreshingly optimistic, yet backed by solid analysis. You will come away with a better understanding both of today’s world and of your own good fortune to be living in these extraordinary times.
Biotech and the Transformation of Healthcare
From Darwin to Destiny - The Future of Human Evolution
Dr. Stock offers a convincing rebuttal to those who fear we are hurtling towards some deadly reckoning. Our steps into space, Artificial Intelligence, the Internet, and our unraveling of biology are all facets of the planetary beehive of concrete and fiber optics we are creating. Humanity is not in peril; it is carrying life into an evolutionary transition as profound as that 700 million years ago when multicellular organisms first arose. Stock will bring you a textured look of coming changes that are so immense that they will force us to examine even what it means to be human. He shows how the Human Genome Project is a key step towards taking control of our own evolution and how progress in molecular genetics will lead to so much more than cures for diseases. Such technology may well enable us to transform our own selves. DNA chips, designer children, human artificial chromosomes, the potential for extended human lifespan, the gradual merging of human and machine: Stock weaves them all into an inspiring and compelling image of our future without ever losing sight of the real world and the immediate challenges we face. This blend of science, evolutionary thinking, cultural extrapolation, and vision will forever transform your view of the world and your place in it.
Enhancing the Human - Genomics, Science Fiction and Ethics Collide
It is one thing to say that we are “reading the book of life,” quite another to seriously examine what our growing ability to manipulate human biology might mean for us and our children. Dr. Stock focuses upon the realistic possibilities for human genetic manipulation, and how these technologies will combine with increasingly sophisticated pharmaceutical interventions and ever more comprehensive and affordable genetic tests. If you want to understand the possibilities and the dangers of “designer children,” if you want to think through the medical, social, and ethical implications of these powerful technologies -- this is the talk for you.
Videos
Frequently Asked Questions
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Speakers Like Greg Stock
Lynda Chin, MD
An elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, Dr. Chin is a renowned cancer genomic scientist and a leader in the application of analytical technologies, AI/ML, and big data in medicine. Her groundbreaking work synthesizing terabyte-scale datasets in genomics and oncology research has opened new frontiers in digital medicine. Dr. Chin founded Apricity Health, a next-generation precision medicine company to harness patient data and clinical expertise to develop better drugs and deliver better care for cancer patients.
Fee Range: $8,000–$15,000
Travels From: TX
Maye Musk
• Maye Musk is a role model, trend maker and rule changer with a fascinating family. • Maye is a respected dietitian who gives talks all over the world about health, nutrition, aging, gender equality, single parenting, overcoming challenges, confidence and health to corporations, associations, hospitals and universities. • Her book, A Woman Makes A Plan, is an international best-seller, and in over 70 countries with more to come. • But things were not always so easy or glamorous--Maye became a single mom at thirty-one years old, struggling through poverty to provide for her three children; dealt with weight issues as a plus-size model and overcame ageism in the modeling industry. She established a lifelong career as a dietitian, all the while starting over in eight different cities across three countries and two continents. • Maye is an Ambassador for two non-profits that fit into her two careers: Big Green, building vegetable and fruit gardens in under-served schools; and Dress for Success, a global not-for-profit organization that has helped more than one million women achieve economic independence by providing a network of support, a variety of personal and professional development programs and work attire.
Fee Range: $37,000–$63,000
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