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.

Emerging medical technologies are substantially improving our health care options, but often at considerable added cost. Cost-effectiveness and affordability are described as the fourth and fifth hurdles for new medical technologies, following the traditional three hurdles for licensing requirements: safety, efficacy, and quality. The Human Genome Project offers ample opportunity to improve human health through innovative genome-based technologies that have only recently become available.

Learning more about the human microbiome is likely to change the way medicine is practiced. It may also have implications for our society and our legal system and important implications for how we conceive and address the ethics of medicine and biomedical research.

This qualitative study is designed to examine the ethical conduct of clinical research, including the conduct of clinical trials, in rural healthcare settings. This study is of great significance since more than half of the clinical research, including pharmacogenomic studies, conducted in the U.S. takes place in physicians' offices, clinics, and hospitals.(1-8) It is no longer unusual to encounter rural physicians, nurses, research coordinators, and hospital administrators who are engaged, in various capacities, in the clinical research enterprise.

The Clinical Sequencing Exploratory Research (CSER) and Return of Results Consortium (RoRC) programs are designed to investigate critical questions about the application of genomic sequencing to clinical care of individual patients, from generation of genomic sequence data, to interpretation and translation of the data for the physician, to communication to the patient, including an examination of the ethical and psychosocial implications of bringing broad genomic data into the clinic.

This application seeks to better understand the needs of patients undergoing genomic testing with respect to the understanding of an adaptation to genomic information through genomic counseling. Through an existing partnership between the Ohio State University Medical Center and the Coriell Institute's Personalized Medicine Collaborative, over 5000 participants have been enrolled in two studies aimed at evaluating the utility of personalized medicine.

Genomics-based technologies are increasingly used in clinical care and are highly relevant to public health because of their potential use in assessing risk, diagnosing, and developing treatment plans. Access to genomic tests often depends on cost and coverage of services by the health plan. No studies, to our knowledge, identify whether access and reimbursement issues relating to guideline-recommended pharmacogenomic tests exist, and what the potential implications of barriers to access and/or differential access for patients, providers, and society are.

The eMERGE project brings together researchers with a wide range of expertise in genomics, statistics, ethics, informatics, and clinical medicine from leading medical research institutions across the country to conduct research in genomics, including discovery, clinical implementation and public resources. The primary goal of eMERGE is to develop, disseminate, and apply approaches to research that combine biorepositories with electronic medical record (EMR) systems for genomic discovery and genomic medicine implementation research.