Forum 20 | Bruce Alberts | Rescuing Biomedical Research: The Future of Biology

March 6, 2015 | UC Davis Student Community Center

Bruce Alberts, Chancellor's Leadership Chair in Biochemistry and Biophysics for Science and Education, UC San Francisco

Abstract: Distressed by the perverse incentives that have generated the current hyper-competitive biomedical research environment in the United States, Dr. Alberts and three colleagues– Marc W. Kirschner, Shirley Tilghman, and Harold Varmus– published an open-access article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences entitled, "Rescuing the US biomedical research from its systemic flaws." Despite widespread agreement concerning the problems, the authors argue, any substantial change in the system is bound to be controversial. For this reason they believe experiments are needed.

In his talk, Dr. Alberts will outline some possible ideas for overcoming the inertia that prevents progress.

He will be joined by a panel composed of UC Davis faculty, postdocs, and graduate students.