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Project Narrative Studies suggest that distrust is a major barrier for participation of minorities in Precision Medicine Research (PMR), though no study has examined the sources of (dis)trust and factors affecting views on trustworthiness of PMR among people with disabilities. This study proposes to engage with people with mobility, visual and hearing disabilities?the most common conditions in the U.S.?across racial/ethnic communities and with translational genomic researchers, the leaders in PMR, to close this gap.

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.

PROJECT NARRATIVE The proposed K01 Award?'Evaluating the Risks and Benefits of the Next Generation of Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Tests??will enable the candidate to acquire the academic background, research experience, and professional skills to become an independent ELSI investigator exploring the risks and benefits of current and emerging direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests.

PROJECT NARRATIVE The goal of this study is to study the effect of COVID-19 on prenatal healthcare delivery, specifically patients' ability to access prenatal genetic screening and diagnostic tests in an informed and evidence- based fashion. By doing so, we will identify whether serious short term health issues for women, children, and families are resulting from the pandemic and develop readily-deployable and scalable solutions to ensure women's informed access to high-quality prenatal care during future public health crises.

The mission of the proposed Center for Genetics Research Ethics and Law (CGREL) is to foster sustained interdisciplinary research on the ethical, legal, and social issues involved in the design and conduct of human genetics research with individuals, families, communities, and populations. CWRU already hosts a variety of research efforts relevant to the CGREL's theme. The CGREL will integrate these efforts to launch new research collaborations and provide the resource structure necessary for their application to high priority genetics research policy questions.

Psychiatric genetic research (PGR) holds great promise for preventing, understanding, and treating neuropsychiatric disorders - a source of immense societal burden and personal suffering. Such research poses many ethical challenges, and failure to perform systematic study of the ethical issues surrounding PGR may threaten societal acceptance of this important scientific work. To date, NIH has not funded any work on PGR that focuses on collecting empirical data about ethical issues.

The launch of the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), and the corresponding interest in bioengineered probiotic therapies that this new NIH initiative is likely to generate, provide a unique opportunity for research examining ethical and social considerations in the introduction of new therapeutic modalities. To date, analysis of ethical and social considerations in the use of probiotics have focused on "over the counter" applications where physician involvement in the selection and administration of the probiotic is limited.

The Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) Programs of the National Institutes of Health and Department of Energy were established to address ethical and related issues raised by the Human Genome Project. A stated goal of the ELSI program has been to influence policy related to the ethical, legal and social issues raised by advances in genetics. While there have been several attempts to measure the degree to which the ELSI program has achieved this goal, there has not been a systematic assessment of ELSI's impact on policy.

Obesity rates in the United States have escalated in recent decades and present a growing challenge in public health prevention efforts. Advances in genomics have begun to shed light on the genetic contributions to obesity. At present, it is unknown whether information about one's personal genetic predisposition to obesity will add value to traditional risk communication efforts and increase the likelihood that individuals will engage in health behaviors to reduce obesity risk.

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