Stephen Friend

Friend, an open science advocate, presents a talk on the reason why some family members will contract certain inherited diseases through genetics while others will remain healthy. He talks about the project he is currently working on – the Resilience Project – which is a massive effort to collect genetic materials that may help decode inherited disorders.

Most of us spend our lives, when it comes to health and disease, acting as if we’re voyeurs. We delegate the responsibility for the understanding of our disease, for the treatment of our disease, to anointed experts. In order for us to get this project to work, we need individuals to step up in a different role and to be engaged, to realize this dream, this open crowd-sourced project.