“She’s a lawyer with a literary bent and has the scientific chops to rival any CSI investigator. A genetics expert of international renown, Andrews teaches at Chicago-Kent College of Law and serves as the director of the Institute for Science, Law and Technology. In 1995, she chaired the federal advisory committee looking into the legal, ethical and social implications of the $3 billion Human Genome Project. And her influence in the legal ethics surrounding genetics doesn’t stop at the border.

No less than a dozen countries have asked for her advice on how to proceed with embryo stem-cell research, gene patents and DNA banking. In her spare time, she’s written numerous nonfiction books, three of which led to appearances on Oprah. Then there’s the fiction, Sequence and The Silent Assassin, which mixes mystery and science.

Glamour got it right when they included Andrews in its “Top 10 College Women” back when she was at Yale (where she graduated summa cum laude and later went to law school). She shares the distinction with Martha Stewart, actress JoBeth Williams and Cosmopolitan editor Kate White.”

On May 21st, 2007, the institute I direct, the Institute for Science, Law, and Technology, convened a conference—“Who Owns Your Body: Legal and Social Issues in Michael Crichton’s NEXT” with Michael Crichton and a star-studded cast which included a judge, law professors, sociologist, and a person whose DNA had been patented without his consent. The participants addressed questions such as: Do you own your DNA, or does someone else? Do gene patents inhibit research? Can researchers use your genetic material without your consent? Where do fact and fiction meet in the world of biomedical research?

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