Luminaries from the worlds of biology and biomedicine will converge on the MIT campus this weekend for an entirely undergraduate-run conference that organizers say will focus on recent advances in biotechnology and the ethical questions they provoke.

The conference, which is being run jointly by the Harvard and MIT Hippocratic Societies, is expected to draw nearly 1000 people, mostly undergraduates.

Speakers will include Nature magazine editor Philip Campbell and the former governor of Puerto Rico, Pedro Rossello Gonzales.

"The purpose of this conference is to educate undergraduates about biotechnology," said Assistant Conference Director Joe P. Sterk '01.

According to Sterk, the speakers and panelists receive no speaker's fees but agree to attend the conference because of the novelty of a conference run and targeted to undergrads.

"There's no trick," Sterk said. "We just get their contact information and call."

Conference Director Praveen R. Shanbhag '02 said the conference will provide a time for undergraduates to ask tough questions of leading scientists and other figures.

"I'm looking forward to seeing how the attendees interact with the speakers and challenge them on the vital issues in biotechnology," Shanbhag said.