UNC has received a $5.6 million grant to establish the UNC Center for Genomics and Society. This research center will study the most critical ethical, legal and social questions faced by researchers and the public involved in genetic and genomic research.
The funding was announced today (Oct. 10, 2007) by the National Human Genome Research Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, which is also funding a similar center at the University of Pennsylvania. Both centers are being created as part of the Centers for Excellence in Ethical, Legal and Social Implications Research initiative, launched by NHGRI in 2004.
Gail Henderson, Ph.D., professor of social medicine in the UNC School of Medicine, is the principal investigator for the center. She leads an interdisciplinary team of researchers across the UNC campus and colleagues at North Carolina Central University, RTI International, and Wake Forest University. The center is part of the Carolina Center for Genome Sciences, directed by UNC’s Terry Magnuson, Ph.D.
Genetic and genomic research has traditionally focused on individuals and small groups of people. But cheaper and more efficient technologies are making it feasible to launch large-scale genomic efforts, often involving thousands of individuals, aimed at discovering genetic associations with diseases present in populations. The Center for Genomics and Society will conduct training, research, and inform policies focusing on issues unique to large-scale genomics.
Specifically, center investigators will examine issues that arise with expanded genetic screening of newborns, questions about who owns biological samples, perceptions of the public and of physicians regarding pharmacogenetic testing, and other issues raised by genomic research and technologies.
Note: Henderson can be reached at (919) 843-8268 or ghenders@med.unc.edu.
Related Web site: http://genomics.unc.edu/genomicsandsociety/index.html