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Tenielle Brown
Professor Brown was on family leave during the spring semester. This year she finished up a book chapter and law review article on religious freedom and patients’ requests for medical miracles. She is currently returning to her research on the psychological underpinnings of the rules of evidence, focusing on the blurry distinctions between character and habit evidence. She will be teaching Torts in the fall and Evidence in the spring.
Jorge Contreras
This summer, Professor Contreras has been preparing several articles relating to intellectual property and biomedical research for publication, including “Genetic Property” (Georgetown L.J.), “Pre-Competition” (NC L. Rev.) and “Narratives of Gene Patenting” (Fla. St. L. Rev.), as well as a chapter entitled “Leviathan in the Commons – Biomedical Data and the State” which is forthcoming in Governing Medical Research Commons (Brett Frischmann, Michael Madison, & Katherine Strandburg, eds. (Oxford Univ. Press)). In addition, he has been conducting interviews across the country for a forthcoming book in which he traces the history and narratives of the Myriad Genetics gene patenting case that was decided by the Supreme Court in 2013.
Leslie Francis
This last year, Professor Leslie Francis has served as President of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association, recognized as the highest academic honor for a philosopher. She gave her presidential address in San Francisco on April 1, 2016, titled “Applied Ethics: A Misnomer for a Field?” In addition, Professor Francis co-authored “The FDA’s Troubling Failures to Use Its Authority to Regulate Genetically Modified Food,” 71 Food & Drug Law Journal 105 (2016) with her fellow colleagues Robin Craig and Erika George. Furthermore, she completed editing The Oxford Handbook on Reproductive Ethics (online and versions available January 2017) while also completing the monograph with John Francis “Privacy: What Everyone Needs to Know” (Oxford Univ. Press 2017). Professor Francis continues to serve as a member of the ethics committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
Amelia Rinehart
Professor Amelia Rinehart’s current work-in-progress explores the patent exhaustion doctrine in historical context and proposes some solutions applicable to Lexmark International, Inc. v. Impression Products, Inc., a recent case with medical device implications. Additionally, Professor Rinehart continues to collaborate with LABS Center for Medical Innovation fellows to support the mission of the University of Utah’s Center for Medical Innovation to encourage innovation across campus within the healthcare field.