The Research Club’s new lecture series officially began with Rajiv Movva’s (12) presentation on the biology and ethics of gene editing last Friday in Nichols Auditorium.

In his lecture, Movva first reviewed general information on genomes before explaining how CRISPR-Cas9, a gene editing tool, can remove, alter or add new sections to DNA. He then opened the floor for discussion so audience members could add their own opinions regarding the ethical constraints regarding the topic.

“It allowed me to think of everything on a bigger scale,” Arusha Patil (9), who attended the discussion, said. “You really have to decide where you personally draw the line on changing our biological information.”

This is the first year that the Research Club will be organizing an ongoing series managed by the club’s officers. Their goal for the series is to promote science to a wider audience.

“I think the lecture series is really not meant to be an academic benefit or an academic experience,” Rajiv said. “It’s more to give [students] a glimpse of what’s going on and the cutting edge of a lot of these sophisticated fields that we don’t hear about in science classes.”

Club adviser Chris Spenner hopes that more frequent student lectures will not only encourage students to ask more questions about topics that they are interested in, but also help speakers “practice presenting their research in front of a non-expert audience.”

Although future lectures have not yet been planned, the series will continue throughout the year. Research Club is also holding workshops to aid those who are planning to submit proposals for the Synopsys Science Fair on Oct. 23.