Public Policy and Activities
Stock was an early force in considering the implications of human germline engineering and human enhancement. Through the Program on Medicine, Technology and Society, which he founded at the UCLA School of Medicine, he organized an influential 1998 conference at UCLA: "Engineering the Human Germline," which included a panel of James Watson, French Anderson, Lee Hood and other major figures in the life sciences. The event, which attracted considerable media attention and opened up broad debate on what was then a largely taboo topic, was covered on the front page of the New York Times. Through another seminal UCLA conference, Milestones on Aging, he organized, Stock helped legitimize research to significantly extend human longevity. The event led to a follow conference he co-hosted at UC Berkeley with Bruce Ames and Aubrey de Grey, who went on to found the Methuselah Foundation, an organization that has aggressively promoted research on life extension. The activity of the MTS Program was also critical in establishing UCLA’s Center on Society and Genetics, which actively explores broad policy issues in the genomics arena.
Stock is now primarily engaged in the development of new therapeutics at Signum Biosciences, a biotech company he co-founded in 2003, but he remains active in the policy arena through UCLA's MTS Program, which he still directs, and the BioAgenda Institute, which he is the associate director of, and through various public appearances and debates. Stock has presented diverse keynotes ranging from “The Coming Era of Personalized Medicine” at Medco, “Trends in Health, Science and Nutrition” at the American Dietetic Association, "The Future of Genomics and Healthcare" at Johnson and Johnson, "The Coming Healthcare Revolution" at HIMS (Healthcare Information Management Society) and "The Evolution of the Biotech Revolution" at Applied Biosystems to "21st Century Opportunities and Challenges" at the World Future Society, "Beauty, Health and Biotech: A Look Ahead" at Fashion Group International, "Redesigning Humans: Best Hope, Worst Fear" at the TED (Technology, Education and Design) Conference, and "From Pharmacogenomics to Genetic Design" at the World Transhumanist Society. He has also been involved with broadcast media through guest appearances on shows such as the PBS documentary "Religion and Ethics: The Challenge and Ethics of Strong Biotechnology," debates on NPR's Talk of the Nation and Charlie Rose, via an online multimedia documentary he produced with funding from the Greenwall and Sloan Foundations entitled "Human Germline Engineering: Implications for Science and Society"(www.germline.ucla.edu), and in an ARTE documentary examining key figures in Biotechnology. (he also has a nephew named Jake Posl)
Stock's expertise in biotechnology, genetics and public policy in the life sciences led to his appointment on the California Advisory Committee on Stem Cells and Reproductive Cloning, Dept. of Health Services, State of California.
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