Robert Cook-Deegan, MD
Director, IGSP Center for Genome Ethics, Law & Policy
"Now we have to do the important work: studying the process of innovation in genomics, the role of intellectual property, and in particular, the practical value of a robust science commons."Robert Cook-Deegan has been the Director of the IGSP's Center for Genome Ethics, Law & Policy since July, 2002. Prior to coming to Duke, he was director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellowship program at the Institute of Medicine (IOM), National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Cook-Deegan was a Cecil and Ida Green Fellow at the University of Texas, Dallas, following his work in the report Allocating Federal Funds for Science and Technology (the "Press Report"). From 1991 through 1994, he directed IOM' s Division of Biobehavioral Sciences and Mental Disorders (since renamed Neuroscience and Behavioral Health). He worked for the National Center for Human Genome Research 1989-1990, after serving Acting Executive Director of the Biomedical Ethics Advisory Committee of the U.S. Congress 1988-1989.
He is the author of The Gene Wars: Science, Politics, and the Human Genome (New York: Norton, 1994; paperback 1996; tr. Korean 1995, Japanese 1996) Dr. Cook-Deegan was a congressional science fellow in 1982 and spent five years at the congressional Office of Technology Assessment. Dr. Cook-Deegan did two years of postdoctoral research on the molecular biology of oncogenes with Lasker Award scientist Raymond L. Erikson, after completing his internship in pathology at the University of Colorado 1979-1982. He received his bachelor' s degree in chemistry, magna cum laude, in 1975 from Harvard College, and his MD degree from the University of Colorado in 1979.
He chairs the Royalty Fund Advisory Committee for the Alzheimer' s Association and the external advisory board of a three-site project on genetic testing for Alzheimer' s susceptibility. He is Secretary and Trustee of the Foundation for Genetic Medicine. Dr. Cook-Deegan was a member of the Board of Directors, Physicians for Human Rights, 1988-1996, with whom he participated in human rights missions to Turkey, Iraq and Panama.
Contact Information
Robert Cook-Deegan
Phone: 919-668-0793
242 North Building
Diane Best
Assistant to Dr. Cook-Deegan
Phone: 919-668-0793
240 North Building
diane.best@duke.edu