Karen Maschke, Ph.D.

Dr. Maschke has expertise on the ethical, legal, and policy issues associated with the development, regulation, and use of new biomedical technologies, including genomic tests, stem cell interventions, and brain imaging technologies. She is also an expert on the ethical, legal, and policy issues related to human subjects research, research with human biospecimens, and data sharing and data privacy. In addition to being a research scholar, she is the editor of the Hastings Center’s journal, IRB: Ethics & Human Research. She has numerous scholarly publications and has been interviewed by media outlets including NPR, Reuters, and the Washington Post.

Dr. Maschke’s research on genetic research with human biospecimens and the governance of research biobanks, including this recent project, explores issues of informed consent, privacy, data sharing, and the disclosure of genomic test information to research participants. She currently is an Investigator on a National Science Foundation–funded project that examines the role of values in formal impact assessment mechanisms, such as cost/benefit analysis and risk assessment for calculating the risks and benefits of emerging technologies, particularly for synthetic biology. Building on this work, she is developing a long-term research project that examines how values and interests about scientific innovation, risk assessment, and government intervention in medicine and technology assessment play a role in disputes about evidentiary standards for regulatory approval and payer coverage of new biomedical technologies.

Dr. Maschke has a Ph.D. in political science from Johns Hopkins University and a master’s degree in bioethics from Case Western Reserve University. Prior to joining the Hastings Center in 2003, she was an assistant professor of political science at Oakland University in Michigan and at the University of Georgia and a Bioethics Fellow at the Cleveland Clinic.