The Ancestry and Diversity Working Group (ADWG) of the Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen) was founded in 2017, with the goal of providing guidance about how population descriptors such as race, ethnicity, and ancestry (REA) should (or should not) be used in clinical genetics.
Powerful works of art enrich our understanding of the issues that matter most in our lives—not least in controversial areas of the biosciences. By exploring the dense cultural networks that shape science and technology, they help us see multiple dimensions of policy issues that might be opaque to other forms of analysis. Novels, from Frankenstein to Never Let me Go, have provided a space for reflection, for deepening and expanding our awareness of the impact of genetics on society.
The completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 opened up the floodgates of genetic data, ushering in rapid technological and scientific change. Today, the decreasing costs of genome sequencing are changing our understandings of human identity, especially racial identity. Yet, the influence of genetic science on conceptions of racial identity is not new. For over 100 years, genetic concepts have been deeply entwined with myths about inherent racial inferiority.