Public Health and Genetics

This project will explore the breadth of current efforts to structure public health practice to respond to advances in genetics, analyzing these efforts for their consistency with existing public health law and policy and for their responsiveness to the lessons of history. The roles of public health institutions in reproductive genetic testing, state-run newborn screening programs, and predictive genetic testing will receive particular emphasis. The results of this analysis will be used to determine whether the new policies being adopted in public health genetics optimally meet the needs of the public, and if not, to suggest areas for improvement.

In March 2000, this project supported a meeting 'Public Dialogue on Gene Patenting,' to bring together consumers, researchers, and industry to discuss and coordinate a response to the Patent and Trademark Office's (PTO's) Revised Interim Utility Examination Guidelines insofar as they affect the patentability of genetic sequence data.