Medical Ethics
Current Grants
Minds Apart: Severe Brain Injury and Health Policy
Joseph J. Fins, M.D., PI
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
7/1/2007-6/30/2010
This Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy Research will fund interdisciplinary research into how best to serve the needs of patients with severe brain injury and their families through better clinical services and the promotion of clinical research. The work is designed to improve clinician-family communication about brain injury, inform educational standards for professionals, and articulate a justification for research in patients who are unable to provide consent.
Neuroethics and Disorders of Consciousness I and II
Joseph J. Fins, M.D., PI
The Buster Family Foundation
11/1/2004-10/31/2009
11/1/2009-10/31/2013
This grant provides funding to assess the scope of misdiagnosis and neglect of patients with disorders of consciousness, consider why these patients are marginalized and outside the public eye, and develop educational materials to instruct physicians on diagnostic and prognostic skills.
Clinical and Translational Science Award
Joseph J. Fins, M.D., Ethics Core Director and Bioethicist
Cathleen A. Acres, RN, MA, Research Subject Advocate/Nurse Ethicist
(PI: Julianne Imperato-McGinley, MD)
National Institutes of Health
2007-2012
The goal of this project is to support, advance, and promote clinical and translational research enterprises at WCMC and collaborating institutions.
Cornell Advanced Center for Interventions and Services Research (ACISR)
Joseph J. Fins, M.D., Director, Ethics Unit (PI: George Alexopoulos, MD)
National Institute of Mental Health
8/26/09-4/30/14
The mission of the CACISR is to produce and disseminate knowledge and practices aimed at reducing the burden of depression and disability in older persons, promoting the growth of investigators, and advancing the methodology needed to carry this work into the future.
Direct CNS Administration of a Replication Deficient Adeno-Associated Virus Gene Transfer Vector Serotype rh.10 Expressing the Human CLN2 cDNA to Children with Late Infantile Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinosis
Inmaculada de Melo-Martín, Ph.D., M.S., Co-I (PI: Ronald Crystal, MD)
National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)
5/1/2010-5/1/2014
This proposal is a clinical therapeutic study using a non-human primate derived adeno-associated virus serotype gene transfer vector to transfer the CLN2 cDNA to the brain of children with Late infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (LINCL).
Doctors' Attitudes on Disclosing Information to Cancer Patients in Qatar
Pablo Rodríguez del Pozo, MD, PhD, JD (Faculty Tutor); Deena Wafadari, Rim Elchaki, Tarek Elshazly, Student Coinvestigators; Joseph J. Fins, MD, Mentor
Qatar National Research Fund-Undergraduate Research Experience Project
9/2010-4/2011
The project will survey doctors in Qatar and is aimed at understanding the cultural specificities of doctors' individual policies on disclosing diagnosis to patients with cancer. This is a small-scale project that should produce preliminary data for a larger regional, multi-institutional proposal that would include Qatar and other countries in the Gulf, and will be jointly carried out by both Weill Cornell campuses, Doha and New York.
Recent Grants
Biology and Ethics: Evaluating the Claim that Biotechnologies Pose a Threat to Human Dignity
Inmaculada de Melo-Martín, Ph.D., M.S., PI
National Science Foundation
9/15/07-8/31/09
This two-year study will examine the ways in which the concept of human dignity is used in current debates about contentious biotechnologies such as human genetic enhancement, the creation of human-nonhuman chimeras, and embryonic stem cell research. It will provide the first systematic assessment of what several influential scholars and recent national and international science policy documents mean when they say that these technologies threaten human dignity. Thus, the research can play a role in improving dialogue between the sciences and the humanities, and between the sciences and society.
Sustaining and Building Research Infrastructure for the Study of Disorders of Consciousness
Joseph J. Fins, M.D., PI
Richard Lounsbery Foundation
7/1/2009-6/30/2009
The goal of this project is to further develop the infrastructure necessary for the systematic study of brain injury at WCMC and Rockefeller University.
CP Snow: Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution
Joseph J. Fins, M.D., Inmaculada de Melo-Martín, Ph.D., M.S., PIs
Richard Lounsbery Foundation
This grant funded a year-long lecture series (2008-2009), a special issue in Technology in Society (Jan 2010), and an upcoming book.
Mending the Brain, Minding our Ethics II
Joseph J. Fins, M.D. (In collaboration with the Department of Neurology. PI: Nicolas Schiff, M.D.)
Charles A. Dana Foundation
11/1/2005-10/31/2008
Advanced Research Institute in Geriatric Psychiatry
Joseph J. Fins, M.D. (In collaboration with the Department of Psychiatry. PI: Martha Bruce, Ph.D., M.P.H.)
National Institute of Mental Health
8/15/2003-7/31/2008
Framework Program for Global Health
Inmaculada de Melo-Martin, Ph.D., M.S., Mentor (In collaboration with the Department of Medicine. PI: Warren Johnson, M.D.)
Fogarty International Center
10/1/06 – 9/30/09
The aim of this multidisciplinary project, developed by faculty at the five Cornell University colleges, will create a global health curriculum that combines new courses and seminars with existing courses and domestic and international research experiences and internships to provide a career pathway for the next generation of global health scientists, and will encourage researchers in global health to engage in greater collaboration and interactions in research.
Down Syndrome in Qatar- a Survey on Public and Family Perception
Pablo Rodríguez del Pozo, MD, PhD, JD (Faculty Tutor); Abdulhad Al-Saei, Arnab Chowdhury and Sanah Sadiq, Student Coinvestigators;
Qatar National Research Fund-Undergraduate Research Experience Project
9/2009-4/2010
The students surveyed public and family perception of Down Syndrome in Qatar.
