CI Announces Biotechnology Law Seminars 

CI lecturers Doug Lane (left) and Panda Kroll (right) take part in a panel discussion at the Ventura Bio Center as part of a series of biotechnology law seminars.

CI is pleased to announce "Science & Society: Legal, Economic, and Ethical Concerns in New Technologies," a series of monthly biotechnology law seminars organized by CI faculty member and biotech legal expert Panda Kroll in conjunction with the Ventura BioCenter and Ventura County Bar Association.  The breakfast seminars, generally held the first Thursday of each month from 7:30 to 9 a.m. at the Ventura Bio Center, 1176 Tourmaline Dr. in Thousand Oaks, are free to the public.  Attorneys pay a nominal fee for continuing education credits.

"Like it or not, advances in biotechnology affect us all," said Kroll, an adjunct faculty member in biotechnology law and regulation in the Martin V. Smith School of Business & Economics.  Also a senior attorney at DK Law Group in Thousand Oaks, Kroll brings expertise on settlements against companies that label products containing genetically modified ingredients as "natural" as well as constitutional challenges.

Biotechnology is the engineering of living organisms to perform tasks or functions that serve human needs.  Much like the Internet 20 years ago, the biotechnology industry is unmapped and exciting.  While the discovery of the human genetic code in the Human Genome Project and biomedical advances have been welcomed enthusiastically, cloning and genetically modified food - and most recently, genetically engineered salmon - have met with distrust.

"As with all technologies, just because we can do something, doesn't mean we should, nor does it mean we will," Kroll said. "These seminars are designed for anyone interested in the leaps taken when innovations in technology converge with competing interests.  We hope that scientists and non-scientists alike will have their thoughts provoked and interest piqued."

Fall 2014 Application Period is February 1 - April 30