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On Friday, Oct. 12, Duke University will host a conference titled "Stem Cell Research: The Latest Science, The Controversy & The Coverage," which is designed to help journalists understand and cover this controversial issue. Several speakers recently have been added to the list of participants.

The conference, which is free and open only to journalists, runs from 9:30 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. at Duke's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy. It is sponsored by the North Carolina Association for Biomedical Research, Duke University and Duke University Health System, Duke's Sanford Institute of Public Policy and DeWitt Wallace Center for Communications and Journalism, North Carolina Biotechnology Center, and Research!America.

Journalists can register online at www.ncabr.org/stemcell_reg.htm.

After opening remarks by former Illinois Congressman John Porter, Dr. R. Sanders Williams, dean of the Duke School of Medicine and vice chancellor for academic affairs for Duke University Medical Center, and Dr. R. Randal Bollinger, professor and chief of general surgery at Duke and a member of the executive committee of the North Carolina Association for Biomedical Research, speakers will address several topics related to stem cell research. Speakers and their topics include:

-- Dr. Joanne Kurtzberg, director of Duke's Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant Program, director of the Carolinas Cord Blood Bank, and a professor of pediatrics and associate professor of pathology at Duke, who will discuss stem cell and cord blood research.

-- Dr. Steven A. Goldman, Nathan Cummings Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience at Cornell University Medical College, who will discuss adult tissue-derived stem cells and therapeutics.

-- Dr. Jeff Rothstein, professor of neurology and neuroscience and vice chairman for research, department of neurology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

-- Dr. Jeremy Sugarman, director of Duke's Center for the Study of Medical Ethics and Humanities and a professor of medicine and philosophy at Duke, who will deliver the keynote address about the ethical considerations of stem cell research.

A panel will discuss the current controversy surrounding stem cell research. Panelists will include Kyle Kinner, legislative assistant to U.S. Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.; Rob Wasinger, senior legislative assistant, office of Sen. Sam Brownback R-Kan.; Tony Mazzaschi, assistant vice president for biomedical research & health sciences research and director of the Council of Academic Societies, Division of Biomedical and Health Sciences Research at the Association for American Medical Colleges; and David Prentice, founding member of Do No Harm: The Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics and professor of life sciences at Indiana State University.

Finally, William Raspberry, a Washington Post columnist and Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism at Duke, Rhonda Rowland, a CNN medical reporter, Karen Garloch, medical reporter with The Charlotte Observer, and John Mangels, science writer with The Cleveland Plain Dealer, will discuss the media's coverage of stem cell research.