The Institute for Science, Law & Technology (ISLAT), a joint venture of the academic units of Illinois Institute of Technology, is designed to meet the growing need for science and law-trained professionals capable of addressing the complex issues that arise in a global, technologically driven marketplace of ideas, products standards, and conflicts. The mission of ISLAT is to produce and disseminate information on the implications and applications of medical technologies within societal and legal contexts. Recent research at the Institute has focused on access to health care, pharmacogenomics, and complex genetic disorders and intellectual property rights.

The majority of the projects undertaken by ISLAT address the issues raised by medical research on, diagnosis of, and treatment for complex medical conditions. These projects include a multi-year assessment of the ethical, legal, psychological, and social implications of testing for genetic disorders (including diabetes). This resulted in a book written by ISLAT Director Lori Andrews, Future Perfect: Confronting Decisions about Genetics, numerous articles, and educational sessions.

In another multi-year project, ISLAT researchers analyzed the legal issue raised by claims in gene patents related to nine complex genetic disorders (Alzheimer’s disease, asthma, ataxia telangectasia, cancers caused by mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2 (linked to diabetes), Canavan disease, familial dysautonomia, hereditary hemochromatosis, obesity (linked to diabetes), and schizophrenia) and also analyzed the impact of gene patents on access to health care and innovation in research. ISLAT researchers also designed a project to assess current developments in legislation, litigation, patent office policy, and international trade negotiations about gene patents to determine their impact in the realm of complex genetic diseases and proposed intellectual property policy alternatives in order to solve problems created by the current scheme.

All ISLAT projects have resulted in educational sessions for physicians, other health care providers, lawyers, bioethicists, and government officials, including state public health departments, the federal Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Social Security Administration. See generally, www.kentlaw.edu/islt/.

According to a March 2006 Family Medicine article, half the diabetes patients who are treated in primary care do not receive appropriate care. (Suzanne E. Landis, Miriam Schwartz, and Diana R. Curran, “North Carolina Family Medicine Residency Programs’ Diabetes Learning Collaborative,” 38 Family Medicine 190-5 (2006)(citation omitted)). In further work by ISLAT, barriers to appropriate research and care will be analyzed. This work of ISLAT will relate to the activities of the biomedical research program and the law school clinic’s legal cases seeking access to health care related to diabetes.

Lori Andrews, J.D., is well qualified to oversee this portion of IIT’s diabetes research. She has been involved in setting policies for medical technologies. She has been an adviser on genetic and reproductive technology to Congress, the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, the federal Department of Health and Human Services, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and several foreign nations including the emirate of Dubai and the French National Assembly. She served as chair of the federal Working Group on the Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications of the Human Genome Project. She recently served as a consultant to the science ministers of twelve countries on the issues of embryo stem cells, gene patents, and DNA banking. She teaches courses in human research, health law, and genetics law, among others.

Julie Burger, J.D., ISLAT’s Assistant Director, is a lawyer who, as a Chicago-Kent student, worked on diabetes cases in Chicago-Kent's Health and Disability Law Clinic and, as a judicial clerk, helped draft opinions related to diabetes health coverage.