News and Events

Legal and Policy Challenges to Privacy in the Post-Genomic and Post-Dobbs Era —– Rapid growth in genetic understanding presents challenges for expectant parents, now complicated by the Dobbs decision’s removal of federal constitutional protection for private reproductive decision-making. This panel will discuss two emerging issues for genetic information after Dobbs:...

The Use of Race, Ethnicity, and Ancestry as Population Descriptors in Genomics Research Thursday, April 20, 1:00pm – 2:30pm Bondurant G100 Please click here for more information.

Ethical considerations and strategies for launching, evaluating, and improving population genetic screening programs At the ELSI Congress in June 2022, genetic counselor Kim Foss and ELSI scholar Kate Saylor led a dynamic networking session on “Ethical Topics Associated with Population Genomic Screening”. Participants were eager to expand on some of...

PLEASE NOTE NEW DATE     CGS Webinar | Friday, January 20, 2023 | 11:00am CT / 12:00pm ET — In traditional predictive genetic testing, single gene variants are analyzed to determine whether individuals are at high risk of developing disease. The vast majority of diseases, however, are polygenic—caused by many different...

Genetic Advantages in Sports: When Do They Count as “Doping”? —– What is the essence of sports, and how does that impact the way doping is defined? The sports world is already preparing for an inevitable wave of “gene-doping” as gene-transfer technologies advance and become more widely available to all...

Genetics and AI: Group Privacy and Fairness —– Big data and artificial intelligence are growing more pervasive and are creating new, complex links between individuals and the many groups to which they might belong, including groups no one might have thought of as a “group” before. How should we think...

Advocacy and Allyship in ELSI: Opportunities and Challenges Objectivity is a weight-bearing pillar in scientific inquiry, a norm to ensure that research and its outcomes are “value free” and unaffected by subjective value judgement. Yet ELSI research, as a field, is also poised to engage, take stands, and advocate for...

As an investigator in UNC’s Center for Genomics and Society, Dr. Cadigan studies the ethical, legal, social, and policy implications of translating genomic research into clinical care. She has designed and conducted multimethod projects involving surveys and interviews with participants and investigators of genetic research studies about issues such as...

Decoloniality and Genetic Ancestry: Situating the “African Genome” The language and practice of social ancestry and genetics are steeped in history. They increasingly influence discussions about the practice of science and the role of communities, yet the meanings and concepts used in those discussions are disputed. In this ELSI Forum...

Legal Challenges to Newborn Screening Research The last few years have seen calls for more diverse and representative collections of biological samples for population based translational research. This need has sparked increased interest in using residual bloodspots from state newborn screening programs for research purposes, given that these collections contain...