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Beyond the Medical: Genetic Testing for Social Traits
January 20, 2023 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Virtual Webinar
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Li3T_5AdQ3alvj5J6EsBLg
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 genes. Polygenic risk scores (PRS) hold promise to predict risk for complex diseases like heart disease or diabetes by measuring the contribution of hundreds of genetic variants at once. Yet beyond prediction of medical outcomes, the realm of ‘sociogenomics’ is developing polygenic scores (PGS) measuring genetic contributions to social traits and behavioral factors, such as income, educational attainment, sexuality, and optimism. This presentation will present initial findings of a newly-funded NIH grant to study these complex scores.
Anya Prince is an Associate Professor of Law and member of the University of Iowa Genetics Cluster. Her teaching and research interests explore the ethical, legal, and social implications of genomic testing, with particular focus on genetic discrimination and privacy rights, the intersection of clinical and research ethics, and insurance coverage of genetic technologies and interventions.
Jean Cadigan is Associate Professor of Social Medicine and a core faculty member in the Center for Bioethics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Her teaching and research interests focus broadly on clinical and research ethics. She primarily conducts empirical studies that focus on the ethical, legal, and social implications of genomic research and practice from the point of view of patients, research participants, clinicians, scientists, and policy makers.
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