The relevance of genomics research for addressing health disparities between population groups is currently being debated. As a practical matter, if genomics hopes to have any role in reducing health disparities, its assumptions and goals will have to make sense to the communities involved. We know very little about what underserved and minority communities that are experiencing health inequities know and think about genomic research and health disparities, and how they might inform research plans if they were invited to discuss it. This project seeks to fill that gap.

Exome sequencing (ES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS) are transformative new tools for discovery of genetic risk factors for both rare and common diseases and offer the potential of personalized genetic risk profiling in a single, cost-effective test. Because of the large number of variant results simultaneously identified, the number of results with potential clinical utility-including those that are unanticipated, and the evolving utility of results over time-use of these technologies challenges existing models of returning results to research subjects and patients.

Candidate Dr. Nanibaa' Garrison is an Assistant Professor at Vanderbilt University on the tenure-track in the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society with a primary appointment in the Department of Pediatrics and a secondary appointment in Anthropology. She completed a Ph.D. in genetics at Stanford University and postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Integration of Research on Genetics & Ethics (CIRGE) within the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics (SCBE) with the support of an NIH F32 postdoctoral fellowship.