NHGRI Funds new Centers for Excellence in Ethical, Legal and Social Implications Research
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The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced the establishment of two new centers to address the most critical ethical, legal and social questions faced by researchers and patients involved in genetic and genomic research.
Over the next five years, grants totaling more than $12 million will be awarded as part of the Centers for Excellence in Ethical, Legal and Social Implications Research initiative, launched by NHGRI in 2004. The new centers are being established at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
"Examining the emerging ethical, legal and social implications of genomic research is central to our goal of safely and effectively moving discoveries into the clinic," said NHGRI Director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.
"These centers will work to identify and address the most pressing issues being confronted by individuals, families and communities as a result of genetic and genomic research."
Each of the new centers will pull together a team of experts representing a broad range of disciplines, such as bioethics, law, behavioral and social sciences, clinical research, theology, public policy, and genetic and genomic research.
The interdisciplinary nature of these teams will allow the centers to develop innovative research approaches focused on specific sets of issues that relate to the numerous applications and uses of genomic research, technologies, and information.
The centers' output will be critical in formulating and implementing effective and equitable health and social policies related to genomic research.
In addition, the centers will create new environments to support the growth of the next generation of researchers interested in exploring the ethical, legal and social implications of genomics. Special efforts will be made to recruit potential researchers from under-represented groups.
The new Centers for Excellence in ELSI Research, their principal investigators and their approximate total funding levels over five years are:
• University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill's Center for Genomics and Society
Gail Henderson, Ph.D., $5.6 Million
Genetic and genomic research has traditionally focused on small groups of people with relatively rare diseases. But cheaper and more efficient technologies are making it feasible to launch efforts involving thousands of individuals, many of which are aimed at uncovering gene variants involved in common diseases. The Center for Genomics and Society will assemble an interdisciplinary team to conduct research focusing on the ethical, legal and social issues unique to large-scale genomics.
• University of Pennsylvania's Penn Center for Elsi Research
Reed Pyeritz, M.D., Ph.D., $5.4 Million
This center will concentrate on the ethical, legal, and social factors associated with genetic technologies, such as genetic testing, with the potential to generate uncertainty and confusion among patients, relatives, doctors and health insurers. The overall goal of the Penn Center for ELSI Research is to develop tools that will help consumers, professionals, policy makers and insurers understand and cope with the certainty or uncertainty of results from genetic technologies.
