The Research School of Social Sciences (RSSS) and the Australian National Centre for the Public Awareness of Science (CPAS) at ANU have partnered with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in a collaboration focused on advancing the science and practice of responsible innovation in the broad domains of precision health and synthetic biology.

Last month, CPAS welcomed Dr John Noel Viana, our new postdoctoral fellow in precision health. 

His background is originally in science, with a Bachelors in molecular biology in the Philippines and a Masters in neuroscience in the Netherlands and France.

“Afterwards, I didn’t really want to do lab work anymore, but I was still interested in science,” said Dr Viana.

“I wanted to apply my theoretical knowledge from biology to broader societal issues.”

He did his neuroethics PhD at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, evaluating the unconsidered adverse effects of clinical trials.

Dr Viana joined ANU at the start of 2020.

“I love the campus, despite the hail and the smoke!” he said.

 His plans during his time at CPAS are to explore RRI in terms of equity and diversity issues in precision health.

“For example, how might certain technologies marginalise certain populations?”

“Some populations hold privacy above all, while others might give up some privacy for national security or biosafety.”

His end goal is to integrate these ideas into future research projects.

“Australian demographics are changing, and our research strategies should start taking that into account.”