John Fagan has spent more than 24 years using cutting edge molecular genetic techniques in cancer research. He earned a B.S. (cum laude with distinction in chemistry) from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Cornell University. He then spent 7 years doing research in molecular biology at the National Institutes of Health, first as a postdoctoral fellow, and subsequently leading his own research group from 1980 to 1984.

In 1984, Dr. Fagan moved his research laboratory from the National Institutes of Health to Maharishi University of Management, where he is now Professor of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Chairman of the Department of Chemistry, Co-director of the Physiology and Molecular and Cell Biology Ph.D. Program, and Dean of the Graduate School.

During his years at Maharishi University of Management, Dr. Fagan has received more than $2.5 million in grants from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health. These grants supported research whose long-term goal was to identify cancer susceptibility genes and to understand how carcinogens and environmental pollutants, such as dioxin, influence gene expression. He has authored more than 30 technical articles on these topics, which have been published in internationally recognized, peer-reviewed journals, including Molecular and Cellular Biology, The Journal of Biological Chemistry, and Biochemistry. From 1991 to 1995 Dr. Fagan was the recipient of a Research Career Development Award from the National Cancer Institute, which is given to enhance the research development of promising scientists.

In recent years Dr. Fagan has been increasingly concerned about the dangers of genetically engineered foods, the hazards of releasing genetically engineered organisms into the environment, and the risks of germ-line genetic engineering in humans.

In November of 1994, he took an ethical stand against these applications, urging scientists to take safer, more productive research directions, and to focus more on prevention and less on high-tech therapeutics. He underscored these warnings by returning a $613,882 grant to the National Institutes of Health and withdrawing grant applications worth another $1.25 million. These would have further supported research that might have contributed indirectly to the development of germ-line genetic engineering in humans. He has now redirected his own research to study the natural health promotion and disease prevention strategies of Maharishi's Vedic Approach to Health. He recently published a book on this topic, Genetic Engineering: The Hazards, Vedic Engineering: The Solutions.

Dr. Fagan has served as a scientific consultant on health and environmental issues, and as an editorial advisor and reviewer for scientific journals. He has also served on committees for the peer-review of federal government-sponsored research grants.

He is a frequent speaker at international scientific conferences, and to organizations with interests in the environment, agriculture, and health, as well as to students and civic groups, and to international organizations. Topics include the hazards of genetically engineered foods, and the risks of genetic engineering in medicine and agriculture. He discusses, not only the health and environmental hazards, but also social, cultural, economic, and human rights impacts of genetic technologies, and the ethical issues associated with genetic engineering and biotechnology. His current research activities , which use rigorous biomedical approaches to evaluate preventive and natural approaches in health care and to assess the effects of genetic engineering on agriculture and food safety, are other topics.

Currently, Dr. Fagan is conducting a global campaign to alert the public to the hazards of genetically engineered foods. The goal of this campaign is to reshape national and international policy and regulations regarding the safety-testing, labeling, and importation of genetically engineered foods. In recent months this work has taken Dr. Fagan to the capital cities of Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, as well as Canada and the United States, where he has conducted meetings with legislators, representatives of national governments, the food industry, the press, and the public. He has also made presentations to international regulatory bodies, such as committees of the Codex Alimentarius Commission and the Convention on Biological Diversity. These meetings and the numerous newspaper articles, and TV and radio shows resulting from them, have contributed to significantly increased public awareness of the dangers of genetically engineered foods and to moving policy in a safer direction.