Research Ethics Grand Rounds
Research Ethics Grand Rounds is a seminar series of local and invited speakers, addressing current ethical, legal and social issues in the design and conduct of biomedical research involving human subjects.
Research Ethics Grand Rounds are co-sponsored by
UNC Center for Bioethics
North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute
UNC Office of Human Research Ethics
Upcoming Research Ethics Grand Rounds
Past Research Ethics Grand Rounds

All of Us
Developing a Scalable Consent for Diverse Participant Engagement
The All of Us Research Program, a keystone of the Precision Medicine Initiative, aims to assemble … Read more

Burgoo vs. Quinoa
Reconciling Local vs. Global Governance in Networked Biorepositories
As biomedical research generates ever-growing requirements for large sample sizes, it has increasingly depended on biorepositories to provide biosamples and … Read more

Pathways to Trust
Genomics, Precision Medicine, and Health Disparities
Wylie Burke, MD, PhD is Professor and former Chair of the Department of Bioethics and Humanities at the University of … Read more

Digital Informed Consent for Pragmatic and Other Large-scale Trials
Digital technologies are changing how people are recruited to research and raising new ethical, practical, and social considerations. Informed consent … Read more

Updating Regulations for Human Subjects Research
The New Common Rule has Arrived! What Changes are Coming?
In early 2017, just prior to the change in administration, the 18 federal agencies that share the “Common Rule” that … Read more

Reflecting on “Experimenting with Humans and Animals”
Looking at human and animal experimentation together revealed intersections and differences that were not immediately evident. This talk will look at … Read more

Ethical and Regulatory issues in “E-consent” to Clinical Research
As translational researchers turn to electronic information sources for clinical research recruitment, they are increasingly using on-line communication tools to … Read more

Ethics of treatment interruption in HIV cure trials
Normative and empirical perspectives
Gail E. Henderson, PhD, is professor of Social Medicine in the School of Medicine, and Director of the UNC Center … Read more

Duties to look, return, or rescue
Moral obligations and incidental findings in research
Dr. Karen Meagher graduated in Hamilton College in 2004 with a B.A.in biology. She received a PhD in Philosophy from … Read more

Employees as research participants
Ethical and regulatory considerations
Dr. Resnik has an M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and J.D. … Read more

Should we take the moral concerns of biobank donors seriously?
Biobanking is becoming an increasingly important component of genomic and medical research. President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative ― which proposes the … Read more

Join the Conquest
Increasing participation in clinical research in North Carolina
Clinical trial recruitment is in crisis. The public typically encounters clinical trial information in controversies or study-specific recruitment ads, which … Read more

Patient perspectives on research on standard medical practices
Implications for consent
Dr. Kevin P. Weinfurt is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke Clinical … Read more

Informed consent for oncology phase 1 clinical trials in the 21st century
Dr. Katie Reeder-Hayes and Dr. Claire Dees, UNC Division of Oncology, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Automatic placement of genomic research results in medical records
Do researchers have a duty? Should participants have a choice?
In genomics research, it is becoming common practice to return individualized primary and incidental findings to participants and several ongoing major … Read more

Proposed changes to the Common Rule IRB regulations
Step 2 in changing the world as we know it
On September 2, 2015, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced its long-awaited proposal to revise the “Common … Read more

Handling research animal ethics
Interactions between science and welfare
Research on animal welfare is organized around a distinction between the care of animals and their use in experiments. Nicole … Read more
Rules, rebels and scientific integrity
Do you have to be a “good scientist” to be a good scientist?
Most courses and texts on the responsible conduct of research imply that the professional ethical norms they teach also facilitate … Read more

The ethics of clinical research during an epidemic
Lessons from Ebola
The 2014 Ebola epidemic in west Africa is the most severe and largest documented to date. It is also the … Read more

Paying research “volunteers”
Ethical and regulatory concerns
Compensating research participants has been the subject of national debate for some time. In this presentation, I will review the … Read more

Dignitary and other intangible harms in clinical research
Regulatory and ethical challenges
Can research subjects be “wronged” even if not physically injured in a clinical trial? Thorny questions of how to account … Read more