R. Alta Charo
Faculty > R. Alta Charo
R. Alta Charo
Warren P. Knowles Professor of Law & Bioethics, Law School
racharo@wisc.edu
Research Description
R. Alta Charo is the Warren P. Knowles Professor of Law and Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where she is on the faculty of the Law School and the Medical School's Department of Medical History and Bioethics. She is an elected fellow of the National Academies' Institute of Medicine.
Professor Charo served as a member of the Obama-Biden Transition Project, where she was a member of the HHS review team, focusing her attention particularly on transition issues related to NIH, FDA, bioethics, stem cell policy, and women's reproductive health. On leave since August 2009, she is currently serving as a Senior Adviser in the Office of the Commissioner at the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
Charo has served on several expert advisory boards of organizations with an interest in stem cell research, including the Canadian Stem Cell Network, CuresNow, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, the International Society for Stem Cell Research and WiCell, as well as on the advisory board to the Wisconsin Stem Cell Research Program. In 2005, she was appointed to the ethics standards working group of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, where she helped to draft the CIRM regulations governing adult, embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cell research. Also in 2005, she helped to draft the National Academies' Guidelines for Embryonic Stem Cell Research, and from 2006 to 2009 she co-chaired the National Academies' Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee.
Charo's earlier related work included service in 1994 on the NIH Human Embryo Research Panel, and from 1996-2001, as a member of President Clinton's National Bioethics Advisory Commission where she participated in drafting its reports on "Cloning Human Beings"(1997); "Research Involving Persons with Mental Disorders that May Affect Decisionmaking Capacity"(1998); "Research Involving Human Biological Materials: Ethical Issues and Policy Guidance"(1999); "Ethical Issues in Human Stem Cell Research"(1999); "Ethical and Policy Issues in International Research: Clinical Trials in Developing Countries" (2001); and "Ethical and Policy Issues in Research Involving Human Participants" (2001).
Selected References
National Academy of Sciences, Ethics Guidelines for Embryonic Stem Cell Research (committee member) (April 2005) and as updated 2007, 2008 and 2009 (committee co-chair).
Liao, Goldschmidt, Sugarman, Bok, Brown, Charo, Faden, Hare, Kahn, Kurtzberg, Manton, Moreno, Shanwani, Sulmasy, Taylor, Zoloth. Ethical and Policy Issues Related to Progenitor Cell-Based Strategies for Prevention of Atherosclerosis. 33 Journal of Medical Ethics 643-646 (2007).
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Regulations for the Ethical Practice of Stem Cell Research. (committee member) 2007.
Daley, Ahrlund-Richter, Auerbach,, Benvenisty, Charo, Chen, Deng, Goldstein, Hudson, Hyun, Junn, Love, Lee, McLaren, Mummery, Nakatsuji, Racowsky, Rooke, Rossant, Scholer, Solbakk, Taylor, Trounson, Weissman, Wilmut, Yu, Zoloth. The ISSCR guidelines for human embryonic stem cell research. Science 315(5812):603-604. February 2, 2007.
Charo. Body of Research – Ownership of Human Tissue. New England Journal of Medicine 355(15):1517-1519. October 12, 2006.