PreMiEr Social and Ethical Implications of Microbiome Engineering Journal Club

Wed., Mar. 15 | 3:00 – 4:00 PM ET

Topic: Race as a “ghost” variable in microbiome research

Facilitator: Prof. Joseph L. Graves, Jr., NC A&T, SEI core, associate director, co-director of DCI, and co-lead of tracking tools of microbial “dark matter” for PreMiEr

Zoom link: See the PreMiEr weekly newsletter or contact Sharon Stauffer at sastauff@ncsu.edu for a calendar invitation

Article: De Wolfe, T. J., Arefin, M. R., Benezra, A., & Rebolleda Gómez, M. (2021). Chasing Ghosts: Race, Racism, and the Future of Microbiome Research. MSystems, 6(5), e00604-21. https://doi.org/10.1128/mSystems.00604-21 PDF

Supplementary reading: Graves, Joseph L. Jr. “The Misguided History of Racial Medicine.” Nautilus, 27 Feb. 2023. https://nautil.us/the-misguided-history-of-racial-medicine-263508/. PDF

See also: Past SEI Journal Club articles and discussions

The purpose of the PreMiEr SEI Journal Club is to build a community that is exposed to and thinking about the societal implications of microbiome engineering, so that we can begin to think about ways to integrate these aspects into the technology development. Another purpose—to get to know each other better as colleagues in PreMiEr!

All PreMiEr affiliated faculty, students and staff are welcome to attend. We will start with introductions and an informal 5-10 minute presentation of the article. We will then have an open discussion about how the societal and ethical aspects in the article may relate to PreMiEr’s natural science or engineering research, work, or scholarship.

Minimal to no preparation needed.

If you’d like a Google calendar invitation, please contact Sharon Stauffer, GES and PreMiEr SEI project manager at sastauff@ncsu.edu. However, if you prefer to mark your own calendar, or show up spur of the moment, no RSVP is needed.

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