Student Life Houston

Date: Thursday, February 23rd, 2023, 9-10 am

Location: Room 2120 (In-person event)

Open to all Faculty, Staff, Students, Alumni, and Community Members

The Office of Student Life Houston is excited to bring to campus renowned Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) scholars, Kristin Kostick-Quenet, Ph.D. and Vasiliki Rahimzadeh, Ph.D. from the BCM Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy. They will discuss Bioethics and the Henrietta Lacks “HeLa Cells."  In 1951, these cells were removed by Johns Hopkins University researcher Dr. George Gey during Henrietta’s treatment for cervical cancer and used for research experimentation without informed consent.

Presenter Bios:

Professor Kostick-Quenet is an Assistant Professor with the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine. Her academic research includes medical anthropology and ethical issues on emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence and machine learning. Her most recent research focuses on how to mitigate algorithmic racial bias by addressing upstream, structural factors contributing to bias in data sets on which AI tools are trained.

Dr. Vasiliki Rahimzadeh is an Assistant Professor with the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine. She holds a Ph.D. from McGill University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics in 2022. Her research explores ethical and regulatory issues associated with sharing genomic data more widely, efficiently, and securely across computing systems. She is interested in how the scientific community can harness the power of big data to advance genomics in ways that respect the privacy interests of individuals and their communities while enabling equitable sharing of scientific benefits.

After the lecture, light bites and refreshments will be served on the 2^nd Floor Bridge.

Registration is required. Register now!