Meet One of Our Lead Investigators: Dr. Rosario Isasi
Meet Dr. Rosario Isasi, the co-principal investigator for this study. Dr. Isasi grew up in Peru where she received a bachelor’s degree at Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru, in Lima. She later completed a Masters in Public Health at Boston University as well as a Juris Doctorate Law degree back at her alma mater in Peru.
Dr. Isasi is now a Research Associate Professor of Human Genetics and an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Miami, where she and her team investigate socioethical implications and policy dimensions of disruptive technologies and regulatory reform and educational programs. Her background and expertise lend her talents well to spearheading this study’s policy-facing arm.
When asked about how this study came about, Dr. Isasi stated, “We were very interested in the social, ethical, and policy implications of gene editing.” That’s when Dr. Isasi and Dr. Allyse decided to bring an expert team together to investigate the value-based framework of stakeholder perspectives on the potential translations of gene editing and find a niche that had yet to be explored in that area. “Our [PASAGE] team values responsible innovations and translational justice,” says Dr. Isasi.
When discussing her own personal research interests, Dr. Isasi said, “For me, I’m very interested in the social uptake of these technologies, the ethical acceptability of them…and how it’s informed by social and professional norms and values.” Dr. Rosario spoke passionately about her research interests and what she considers to be a key element in this realm of research that is often forgotten, “The ethical and policy normative frameworks and changes in degrees of control of how technology can advance or not through the whole research cycle is important…The societal values that truly inform policy approaches and the direction of science, professional standards, and societal needs are key…The effect of these individual and singular decisions are going to have a systemic impact in societal uptake [of these technologies].”
Dr. Rosario first became involved in this realm of science when her previous mentor, Professor George Annas, asked her to collaborate on an international genetic policy project, “so I worked with him, and I started by doing a comparative legal study of how 40+ countries regulate cloning technologies and genetic engineering.” Although it was a legal study, Dr. Isasi was most intrigued by the social and ethical dimensions of the project and the human values behind the study. As a trained lawyer, she was also quite interested in the politics of adopting policies at the international level. She worked with representatives from Germany and France on the adoption convention for four years. Then, she was offered the very first fellow position in the genomics and global health postdoctoral program at the University of Toronto, where she considers her career today to have “really blossomed.”
A fun fact about Dr. Rosario is that she used to be an avid collector of antique toys—so much so that she and her collection were once featured in a Peruvian magazine under an article entitled, “mundo de juguete” which translates to “toy world.” She ended up selling most of her collection to help pay for her master’s degree!