Events
Upcoming Webinars
To be announced.
Past Webinar
Event:Cultivated Meat: Regulatory & Safety Challenges for a Developing Industry
Co-Hosted by: SOT Biotechnology Specialty Section (BTSS), Ethical, Legal, Forensics, and Societal Issues Specialty Section (ELFSI), and Food Safety Specialty Section (FS3)
Date and Time: Thursday, February 9, 2023 3:00–4:00 PM (US EST, UTC -5)
Description:The development of cultivated meat (e.g., chicken, beef, seafood) holds the potential of solving environmental, ethical, and health challenges associated with the production and consumption of traditional animal-based foods. At the end of 2021, more than 100 companies have emerged across the globe, all aiming to provide meat without slaughtering animals. This emerging technology has, however, raised the need for the rapid development of risk assessment protocols to address the safety of these novel products adequately. In addition, many global regulatory agencies have also found themselves quickly needing to adapt and develop their own regulations to determine how these products can be safely manufactured, distributed, and labeled. This session aims to provide participants with 1) an overview of the molecular methodologies and challenges in the creation of cultivated meat, 2) an examination of the regulatory and safety challenges faced by this novel industry and regulators as well as 3) a brief discussion on consumer expectations on the sustainability, nutritional, and ethical considerations associated with the production of cultivated meat. This session will consist of three presentations followed by a panel discussion moderated by BTSS Secretary/Treasurer René Viñas, PhD, DABT.
- Molecular Methodologies in Cultivated Meat Technology
David Block, PhD, Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California - Davis - Regulatory & Safety Challenges in Cultivated Meat
Dave Tonnuci, PhD, Vice President, Regulatory & Toxicology, SciFi Foods, Inc. - Consumer Expectations and Perceptions on Cultivated Meat
Janet Tomiyama, PhD, Professor, Department of Psychology, University of California - Los Angeles
Event: Avoid Being Toxicology's Worst Enemy
Date and Time: Friday, November 4, 12:00 Noon–1:30 PM (US EDT, UTC -4)
Description: This webinar will provided tips for interacting with the press to share your novel findings and for how to leverage the applied ethics framework and be a steward of scientific integrity. This was the third webinar in a three-part series on how scientific bias, credibility, conflict of interest, censorship, and advocacy should be top of mind for toxicologists conducting and communicating their research, particularly in novel areas. This series was organized and hosted by the SOT Sustainable Chemicals through Contemporary Toxicology (SCCT) and Ethical, Legal, Forensics, and Societal Issues (ELFSI) Specialty Sections.
Presentation SlidesWebinar Recording
Event: Toxicologists Can be Trusted through Integrity and Transparency
Date and Time: Wednesday, October 5, 12:00 Noon–1:30 PM (US EDT, UTC -4)
Description: This webinar provided tips for communicating the role of toxicologists to the general public–and why we can be trusted–and discussed the importance of scientific integrity and transparency, including how to disseminate your knowledge effectively. This was the second webinar in a three-part series on how scientific bias, credibility, conflict of interest, censorship, and advocacy should be top of mind for toxicologists conducting and communicating their research, particularly in novel areas. This series was organized and hosted by the SOT Sustainable Chemicals through Contemporary Toxicology (SCCTSS) and Ethical, Legal, Forensics, and Societal Issues (ELFSI) Specialty Sections.
Presentations:
- Who Are Toxicologists, and How Are They Different from My Medical Doctor?
Michael Dourson, Director of Science, Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA) - Knowledge Mobilization, Scientific Integrity, and Transparency
Wendelyn Jones, Executive Director, Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences (IAFNS)
Webinar Recording
Event: Combating Censorship and Vilification
Date and Time: Friday, September 23, 11:00 AM–12:30 PM (US EDT, UTC -4)
Description: This webinar highlighted recent examples of censorship of inconvenient viewpoints in toxicology (or "consensorship"), the importance of credibility and due diligence as expert witnesses in toxicology, and how to combat vilification by focusing on the science. This was the first webinar in a three-part series on how scientific bias, credibility, conflict of interest, censorship, and advocacy should be top of mind for toxicologists conducting and communicating their research, particularly in novel areas. This series was organized and hosted by the SOT Sustainable Chemicals through Contemporary Toxicology (SCCT) and Ethical, Legal, Forensics, and Societal Issues (ELFSI) Specialty Sections.
Presentations:
- Censorship and Issue-Specific Advocacy: Is "Consensorship" the New Paradigm?
Chris Borgert, President and Principal Scientist, Applied Pharmacology and Toxicology, Inc. - Expert Witness Testimony and Ethics: Science over Advocacy
Laura Plunkett, Managing Partner, Biopolicy Solutions, LLC
Webinar Recording
Event: ELFSISS Webinar: Ethics, Opioids, and America’s Drug Overdose Crisis
Date and Time: Wednesday, December 11, 2019, at 1:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time (New York, GMT-05:00)
Duration: 1 hour
Description: Many individuals live with pain, and opioids can treat pain. But as we now know all too well, living in the midst of an epidemic, opioids can also be deadly. How, then, are we to think of opioid medication? In this talk, Travis will argue that we have to get away from thinking of opioids as either a panacea or black magic; like all drugs, they carry both risks and benefits, and responding appropriately to both requires careful reasoning.
Speaker:Travis N. Rieder, PhD
Assistant Director of Education Initiatives
Research Scholar
Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics
Event: Pollinators & Pesticides: Complementary Components of Sustainable Agriculture Webinar
Date and Time: Monday, November 7, 2012, at 2:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time (New York, GMT-04:00)
Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes
Description: Neonicotinoids are one of the fastest growing classes of insecticides used in modern crop protection. Selectively targeting the insect nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR), neonicotinoids have high target specificity and low mammalian toxicity with no cross-resistance to conventional insecticide classes, which make them an attractive alternative to organophosphate pesticides.
Neonicotinoids are systemic compounds that translocate throughout the treated plant when applied to the seed, greatly reducing overall chemical usage and minimizing acute exposures to sensitive non-target organisms. Nonetheless, it is conceivable that pollinators, such as bees, may be exposed to these compounds via pollen and/or nectar as well as other routes of exposure. Because neonicotinoids are intrinsically hazardous to bees, a considerable amount of effort is currently being devoted to better understanding the nature of exposure and the potential impact (if any) on bees as well as mitigation options to reduce the potential impact to pollinators.
Bees and crop protection products are integral and complementary components of a sustainable, healthy, and productive agricultural system. As a result, the agrochemical industry has invested heavily in pollinator research and is playing an integral role in improving bee health across the world.
Pollinator health is a complex issue that requires a multi-faceted approach in order to realize long-term improvements. To that end, industry has invested in programs to promote product stewardship; biodiversity initiatives designed to re-establish bee foraging habitat; and research programs to study bee biology and develop treatments to protect bees from parasites and disease. Programs such as the Global Bee Care Program (Bayer Crop Science) and Operation Pollinator (Syngenta) underscore our dedication to this issue.