The mission of the University of Toronto MHSc in Bioethics International Stream is to strengthen individual and institutional leadership capacity in bioethics, with particular emphasis on research ethics, in low- and middle-income countries. We work in partnership with existing and emerging programs in strong institutions in the developing world to identify leaders who will make those programs successful and sustainable.

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.

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.

Understanding the social factors that influence the translation of genetic information to improved human health is a major objective of genomics research (Grand Challenges II-5,II-6 and III-1). One current approach for applying genomics to public health is to raise social awareness of family history as an independent, major risk factor for common diseases of adulthood in order to motivate appropriate preventive actions.

This project would address several questions concerning parental rights and responsibilities in forming families and the morality of using genetic technology to prevent or create children with impairments: 1) Are genetic impairments subject to greater concern than other alleged sources of harm to future children? If so, is that greater concern justified? 2) Do public attitudes, practices, and policies toward reproductive conduct take account of whether that conduct affects the identity of the future child? Should they?

A significant proportion of patients who pursue testing for BRCA gene alterations are of reproductive age. Many are actively engaged in decisions about family planning or will be in the future. A prime concern of this population is minimizing the impact of hereditary cancer on their children. Genetically-enhanced assisted reproductive technologies (ART), such as preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), as well as prenatal diagnosis (PND) followed by consideration of selective abortion, may enable individuals and couples to avoid passing genetic mutations on to their children.

This application proposes to assess the societal impact of genetic tests offered directly to consumers (DTC) and to develop policy options for DTC oversight that will balance the benefits of promoting availability of tests that can have a positive impact on public health and preventing harm to the public as a result of misleading claims, inappropriate tests, or inaccurate test results.

The proposed project explores how researchers in the new and growing arena of gene- environment interaction (GxE) research operationalize the concept of "a human population." The proposed project will add critical information about how traditional epidemiologists and genetic epidemiologists, using different kinds of data, work together to operationalize groups in their biomedical studies of disease.

This project is an investigation of the implications of research on ancient and contemporary human microbiomes for the social and ancestral identities of indigenous people. It will engage indigenous communities on the U.S. Southern Plains (Apache, Caddo, and Kiowa nations) and in the Andean region of Peru (Aymara, Quechua and Uros-descended communities).