Jan Helge Solbakk is a medical doctor at Oslo University, a theologian, and holds a PhD in Ancient Greek Philosophy. He is a Professor of medical ethics at the Center for Ethics, University of Oslo. Between 1996 and 2011, he was an Associate Professor of medical ethics at the Center for International Health, University of Bergen. In 2007 and 2008, he was Head of the UNESCO Bioethics Programme, at UNESCO Headquarters, Paris. In the period of 2010-2013, he chaired the Ethics and Public Policies Committee of the International Society for Stem Cells Research (ISSCR). He has served as an ethics expert for various international organizations (UNESCO, the European Commission, the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership, and the Council of Europe). Solbakk has numerous publications and has participated/is involved in various international research and capacity-building projects relating to bioethics teaching, research ethics and integrity in research, research biobanking, personalized medicine, nanomedicine, and stem cell and organoid research. From February 1, 2021–September 1, 2022, he was coordinating a Science with and for Society project (SWAFS 28), HYBRIDA – the ethics of organoid research, with funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under GA ID: 101006012. In April 2022, he was awarded an ERC advanced grant, MORE – Moral residue – epistemological ramifications, ethical implications, and didactic opportunities, GA ID: 101054147, for the period of September 1, 2022–August 31, 2027.
Contributions to the project
Together with a health law expert (Heidi Beate Bentzen) and a philosopher (Maxence Gaillard), Solbakk will explore the difference in the ontological, epistemological, and legal status of gastruloids derived from mouse embryonic stem cells versus human embryonic stem cells, and develop a comprehensive regulatory framework for mouse and human gastruloid research and gastruloid-related technologies.