PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Researchers engaged in conducting genetic and genomic science are significant players in advancing biomedical science and health care. Through their work, they are a vital part of the ethical, legal, and social outcomes of science, but there is a gp in knowledge concerning how genomic scientists navigate the complex ethical, legal, and social issues related to their research.
While great strides are being made in identifying early signs that place people at a ?high risk state? for different illness conditions, at the same time, advances are being made in the identification of genes associated with ?high-risk states?. This study proposes to develop two innovative clinical tools that could greatly facilitate dissemination of a beneficial genetic malleability framing to high-risk youth in order to encourage increased treatment engagement and uptake of healthy behaviors. The impact of genetic information assumes special importance in the ?high-risk state?
This Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) will prepare the candidate to become an interdisciplinary ELSI researcher conducting high-impact, independently funded research exploring the impact of genetic and other biological explanations for addictions and other psychiatric disorders on attitudes and beliefs about health and identity. The research will examine how genetic attributions for addiction relate to beliefs about individual agency and treatment effectiveness among people with addictive disorders and clinicians who treat them.
Project Narrative. Advances in psychiatric, neurologic and behavioral (PNB) genetics have brought the prospect of predictive and diagnostic genomic testing for many PNB conditions closer to clinical application. The potential for such findings to profoundly affect core elements of personhood?including identity, perceived responsibilities, and life trajectories?makes it essential to understand the impact of such information on individuals and families.
The aim of this proposal is to add to the limited store of knowledge available about public values and attitudes relevant to various aspects of genetic technology. The proposal has two specific aims. The major aim is to investigate experimentally the determinants of people's beliefs about the relative contribution of heredity and environment to differences in such behavioral characteristics as aggression, shyness, and alcoholism.
Modern genetic research gives us unprecedented ability to understand and manipulate fundamental biological processes. Our growing potential to understand and shape the world in genetic terms also seriously challenges basic beliefs and ethical norms. At the same time, values and norms affect the way genetic research is designed and conducted. Despite the significant ethical and societal implications of emerging genetic research, there are few venues for geneticists to participate in interdisciplinary research and to discuss these issues.
To realize the benefits of recent advances in cancer genetics, it is critical to identify and refer families in greatest need of genetic counseling and testing services. BRCA1/2 mutations that place an individual at higher risk for Hereditary Breast Ovarian Cancer (HBOC) Syndrome have been extensively screened for and documented within Hispanic populations. While professional and scientific organizations have set forth clinical criteria to identify individuals at high risk for HBOC there is a disparity in access to and use of cancer genetics services in Hispanic communities.
One of the projected health dividends of the Human Genome Project is the use of personalized multi-gene testing to identify individual susceptibilities, so that individuals can undertake preventive courses of action. Among other things, for this to be successful medical personnel must be able to convey this information without creating fatalism and in ways that are comprehensible and believable to lay people.
Various theories have been offered about the significance of attributing behavioral characteristics - for example, propensity to violence, intelligence, alcoholism, and obesity to genes or genetic inheritance. On the one hand, genetic explanations may absolve people from blame for characteristics considered socially undesirable; on the other hand, belief in genetic determinism may signify that these undesirable characteristics are unchangeable, and that efforts to improve the environment for example, to improve educational opportunities for Blacks and women are futile and unnecessary.
Genetic testing for deafness is now a reality with the identification of Connexin 26 (Cx26, GJB2) as a cause of up to 50% of nonsyndromic sensorineural deafness. Because deafness is viewed as a personal trait, rather than a medical condition, by many individuals, the impact of genetic information on deaf/hard of hearing (hoh) individuals and members of the Deaf community needs to be empirically examined to fully understand the ethical, social, and clinical ramifications of genetic testing for deafness.