Public Education Critical to Population-Wide Genomics Research

Extract

Cracking the 3-billion–base-pair code of the human genome was a critical step toward understanding the genetic underpinnings of health and disease. But it is still several steps away from leveraging this information into a better characterization of, and eventually better treatments for, many common diseases. One approach has been to design large-scale genetic databanks for the molecular study of disease. A number of such projects throughout the world are being planned or implemented.

Pursuing the promise of molecular medicine through DNA banks, however, will rely not only on dedicated researchers, advanced technology, and adequate funding but also on the cooperation of human subjects to provide biological specimens and medical, genealogic, and lifestyle information.

As such research moves forward, investigators must “fully respect human dignity, freedom and human rights, as well as the prohibition of all forms of discrimination based on genetic characteristics,” as the UNESCO document, the Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights, emphasizes.