Gail Henderson, PhD of the Social Medicine Department was recently awarded a U13 grant from the NHGRI Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) Research Program.
Since its creation in 1990, NHGRI’s Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) Research Program has supported a large body of empirical, analytical and conceptual research to anticipate and address the ethical, legal, and social implications of genomics. ELSI research addresses the new and sometimes unexpected ways that genomics interacts with many aspects of daily life, from how healthcare is designed and delivered to the ways individuals, families and communities understand such basic concepts as belonging and what it means to be human.
The ELSI Research Program has fostered a large multi-disciplinary community of researchers addressing a wide range of topics. The NHGRI sponsors a biennial meeting—the ELSI Congress—to bring together those with an interest in the ELSI of genomics. Researchers, scholars, practitioners, trainees, policymakers, journalists, and the general public are invited to share and explore the latest ELSI research.
This U13 award will support three ELSI Congresses, to be held in 2026, 2028 and 2030. Henderson and team (Jean Cadigan, Kriste Kuczynski, and Margaret Waltz) will be responsible for developing a robust process for invitation, submission, review, and selection of abstracts as part of the conference programming process. In addition, they will select venues, publicize the conference, and archive presentations. The 2026 ELSI Congress will be held June 22-24, 2026, at the Friday Conference Center in Chapel Hill, NC. Please watch the UNC Center for the ELSI of Biotechnology website for more information as it becomes available.