LONDON — A multidisciplinary committee has been appointed to plan the Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing, which will take place March 7-9, 2022, in London, U.K. The committee, which includes representatives from 11 nations, is being chaired by Robin Lovell-Badge, FMedSci FRS.

The three-day summit will be held at The Francis Crick Institute in London, with the option to participate remotely. The summit is being organized by the U.K. Royal Society and Academy of Medical Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine, and UNESCO-The World Academy of Sciences for the advancement of science in developing countries (TWAS).

A statement from the presidents of the organizing institutions, also published today, sets out how this summit will build on previous events held in Washington, D.C. (2015) and Hong Kong (2018) and continue important international dialogue around human genome editing.

During the summit, international stakeholders representing the academic, medical, regulatory, bioethical, and patient communities will discuss global considerations regarding human genome editing, including:

• An update on advances in science and techniques in non-heritable and epigenetic genome editing since the 2018 summit
• Current clinical research involving non-heritable genome editing and barriers to clinical applications
• The state of the science for germline genome editing in embryos and gametes
• Policy approaches to increase capacity and accessibility to treatments for genetic diseases globally
• Discussion of recent reports from the World Health Organization and potential methods for developing international and national regulatory frameworks
• Ethical, societal, and cultural considerations surrounding human genome editing
• The role of non-scientists, including the public, in setting the research agenda.

Visit the summit’s website for more information and updates. Please use and follow #HGESummit on social media.

Planning Committee for the Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing

Robin Lovell-Badge[1] [2] (chair)
Group Leader, Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics
The Francis Crick Institute, UK

David Baltimore[3] [4] [5]
President Emeritus and Distinguished Professor of Biology
The California Institute of Technology, USA

Françoise Baylis
University Research Professor, Philosophy
Dalhousie University, Canada

Ewan Birney[1] [2]
Deputy Director General of EMBL & Director of EMBL-EBI
The European Bioinformatics Institute, UK

Alta Charo4
Warren P. Knowles Professor Emerita of Law and Bioethics
University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

George Daley[4]
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Caroline Shields Walker Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School, USA

Jennifer Doudna[3] [4] [5]
Li Ka Shing Chancellor’s Chair and Professor in the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
University of California, Berkeley, USA

Javier Guzman
Director of Global Health Policy
Center for Global Development, USA

Daria Julkowska
Scientific Coordinator of the European Joint Programme on Rare Disease
Thematic Institute of Genetics & European Joint Programme on Rare Disease, France

Julie Makani
Associate Professor in the Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion
Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Tanzania

Chris McCabe
Executive Director and CEO
Institute of Health Economics, Canada

Luigi Naldini
Professor of Cell and Tissue Biology and of Gene and Cell Therapy and Scientific Director of the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy
San Raffaele University School of Medicine, Italy

Cor Oosterwijk
Managing Director
VSOP (Association of Cooperating Parent and Patient Organisations), Netherlands

Lily Paemka
Lecturer and Coordinator Genetics Program
University of Ghana, Ghana

Michèle Ramsay
Director of the Wits Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience (SBIMB), Professor in Human Genetics, and South African Research Chair in Genomics and Bioinformatics of African Populations
The University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

Elisa Reis[6]
Professor of Political Sociology and Chair of the Interdisciplinary Research Network for the Study of Social Inequality
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Haoyi Wang
Principal Investigator, State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology
Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Mayana Zatz[6]
Professor and Founder of the Brazilian Association of Muscular Dystrophy
University of São Paulo, Brazil

[1] Fellow, The Royal Society
[2] Fellow, The Academy of Medical Sciences
[3] Member, U.S. National Academy of Sciences
[4] Member, U.S. National Academy of Medicine
[5] Foreign Member, The Royal Society
[6] Fellow, The World Academy of Sciences