Project Narrative ?Ethical and Social Implications of In Vitro Gametogenesis? In vitro gametogenesis (IVG) is an emerging technology that involves making an egg or a sperm cell outside of the body from a skin cell or a progenitor germ cell, an approach recently validated in mouse models.

PROJECT NARRATIVE Though any single rare disease is by definition uncommon, together these diseases affect nearly 30 million individuals in the United States, two-thirds of whom are children, and contribute significantly to morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs. Exome and whole genome sequencing have the potential to provide a diagnosis to an estimated 25 to 50 percent of those patients struggling with undiagnosed rare diseases, but the downstream costs and benefits of this testing beyond diagnosis remain largely unknown.

This Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00) will prepare the candidate to become an interdisciplinary ELSI researcher with a high-quality, independently funded research program exploring the influence of the genome sciences ? including epigenetics ? on conceptualizations and understandings of health, disease, and individual responsibility. This study examines conceptualizations of epigenetics related to children's psychiatric, behavioral, and neurodevelopmental health and their translation to community settings.

The Mentored Scientist Development Award in Research Ethics will fulfill three main goals: 1) to obtain a broad and in-depth foundation in research ethics and to develop research skills in ethical reasoning and analysis in order to become a resource for those pursuing biomedical research; 2) to build a research program on the ethical implications of human genetic variation research for social distributive justice; and 3) to become an independent investigator in the field of research ethics upon the completion of this career development award.

Probing Minority Views on Genetic Testing and Research Grant # F31HG004124 Grant period: 08/23/2006 - 08/22/2009 Minorities, particularly African Americans and Hispanics, are under-represented when it comes to utilizing genetic testing and participating in genetic research. Previous studies, largely survey-based, have noted this situation but have not explained the reasons for this disparity. My research program is geared toward understanding the views of minorities concerning genetic testing and concerning their participation in genetic research.

Over the past two decades, forensic DNA profiling has become an important tool in the investigation of human rights abuse and genocide. There is, however, little understanding of the ethical, historical, political, psychosocial, or policy dimensions of this application of genetic technology. The lack of a well-developed body of relevant research, and few regulations to guide the implementation of humanitarian DNA identification projects, means that organizations and individuals must develop their own ad hoc rules and procedures for the identification process.

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.