Talking Glossary of Genomics Terminology: A Genomics Education Module for American Indian Communities

This paper describes the development of an audio visual genomics glossary that was designed as an education tool for American Indian communities. This “Talking Glossary of Genomics Terminology” is a multimedia DVD that was modeled on the “Talking Glossary of Genetics,” which was developed by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). The NHGRI Glossary was modified and expanded with content designed to increase awareness among American Indians about cancer, genomics, and personalized medicine. Partners on the project include the Inter Tribal Council of Arizona, Inc., Phoenix Indian Medical Center, Arizona Cancer Center at the University of Arizona, the Translational Genomics Research Institute, as well as Arizona State University and University of Arizona graduate students

Public Health Genomics: The Essentials. By Claudia N. Mikail

The sequencing of the human genome in 2001 provided researchers, clinicians, policymakers, ethicists, and public health practitioners with a myriad of information to potentially improve disease outcomes on an individual and population basis. Genomics is a burgeoning field of study that examines the interactions among the genetic material in the human body, including interactions with environmental and behavioral factors. The role of public health in this new field of study is complementary, since population trends, health disparities, and the social determinants of health contribute to our understanding of the underlying causes of disease provided by genomic research. Thus, the new discipline of public health genomics has improved our ability to carry out the health professional’s mission to promote health and prevent disease. Public Health Genomics: The Essentials is a recent book that describes this emerging ‘‘interface between science and society.’

The emergence of commercial genomics: analysis of the rise of a biotechnology subsector during the Human Genome Project, 1990 to 2004.

BackgroundDevelopment of the commercial genomics sector within the biotechnology industry relied heavily on the scientific commons, public funding, and technology transfer between academic and industrial research. This study tracks financial and intellectual property data on genomics firms from 1990 through 2004, thus following these firms as they emerged in the era of the Human Genome Project and through the 2000 to 2001 market bubble.MethodsA database was created based on an early survey of genomics firms, which was expanded using three web-based biotechnology services, scientific journals, and biotechnology trade and technical publications. Financial data for publicly traded firms was collected through the use of four databases specializing in firm financials. Patent searches were conducted using firm names in the US Patent and Trademark Office website search engine and the DNA Patent Database.ResultsA biotechnology subsector of genomics firms emerged in parallel to the publicly funded Human Genome Project. Trends among top firms show that hiring, capital improvement, and research and development expenditures continued to grow after a 2000 to 2001 bubble. The majority of firms are small businesses with great diversity in type of research and development, products, and services provided. Over half the public firms holding patents have the majority of their intellectual property portfolio in DNA-based patents.ConclusionsThese data allow estimates of investment, research and development expenditures, and jobs that paralleled the rise of genomics as a sector within biotechnology between 1990 and 2004

The Governance of Genomic Information: Will It Come of Age?

The completion of the Human Genome Project has opened up unprecedented possibilities in healthcare, but also ethical and social dilemmas in terms of how these can be achieved. Genomic information can be seen as a 'global public good' (GPG), in that it is represented by knowledge in the public domain and across national boundaries. Lack of investment, infrastructure and expertise in developing countries means that they are unable to take advantage of these GPG characteristics to address their health needs, fuelling fears of a growing 'genomics divide'. Some have suggested an international knowledge sharing and capacity building network, a Global Genomics Initiative, as a means to harness the potential of genomics to reduce inequalities in health between North and South. Three UNESCO declarations also call for cooperation between developed and developing countries in genomics research and science and technology in general. Using international relations theories around global governance and networks as a conceptual framework, this paper examines whether these initiatives are likely to succeed in providing effective governance of genomics

Revisiting digital technologies: envisioning biodigital bodies

In this paper the contemporary practices of human genomics in the 21st century are placed alongside the digital bodies of the 1990s. The primary aim is to provide a trajectory of the biodigital as follows: First, digital bodies and biodigital bodies were both part of the spectacular imaginaries of early cybercultures. Second, these spectacular digital bodies were supplemented in the mid-1990s by digital bodywork practices that have become an important dimension of everyday communication. Third, the spectacle of biodigital bodies is in the process of being supplemented by biodigital bodywork practices, through personal or direct-to-consumer genomics. This shift moves a form of biodigital communication into the everyday. Finally, what can be learned from putting the trajectories of digital and biodigital bodies together is that the degree of this communicative shift may be obscured through the doubled attachment of personal genomics to everyday digital culture and high-tech spectacle.Keywords: genomics, biodigital, bodies, spectacle, everyda

Next. Michael Crichton. New York: Harper Collins, 2006

Michael Crichton‟s latest novel Next (2006) is his third about genomics. Yet, whereas Jurassic Park (and its sequel The lost world) contained stories about sequencing, reconstructing and revivifying the genomes of (extinct) animals, Next analyses the impact of genomics in the biomedical sphere: its consequences for human life (health, labour, sexuality, family life). Gene patenting, and the philosophy of genetic determinism that inspired and legitimised this practice, is at the root of most of the soap-like absurdities Crichton stages in his novel

Paths to a malaria vaccine illuminated by parasite genomics.

More human death and disease is caused by malaria parasites than by all other eukaryotic pathogens combined. As early as the sequencing of the first human genome, malaria parasite genomics was prioritized to fuel the discovery of vaccine candidate antigens. This stimulated increased research on malaria, generating new understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of infection and immunity. This review of recent developments illustrates how new approaches in parasite genomics, and increasingly large amounts of data from population studies, are helping to identify antigens that are promising lead targets. Although these results have been encouraging, effective discovery and characterization need to be coupled with more innovation and funding to translate findings into newly designed vaccine products for clinical trials

Colonial Legacies, Postcolonial Biologies: Gender and the Promises of Biotechnology

Three decades of work in the feminist studies of science and technology have shaped our evolving understandings of the relationships between sex, gender, and biotechnology. Sex, and gender are most often reduced to binary categories, severely limiting our conceptions not only of human diversity, but those of science and technology. Using two case study set in India, transnational surrogacy and the Indian Genome Variation Project, this paper explores how popular positions around biotechnology are reduced to binary positions promoting and opposing biotechnology as the solution for the economic and social development of India. By locating surrogacy and genomics within the larger geopolitical, historical, economic and cultural transformations of postcolonial India, the paper argues that both technologies are far more complex in their impact on women and gender. Why does technology become the major site of hope for the future? Why does genomics become the site for the promises of good health? Why has India become a site for reproductive tourism, and transnational surrogacy in particular? Drawing on the social studies of science, the paper argues that technology and human bodies are never neutral but always prefigured with a gender, race, caste and sexuality. Surrogacy and genomics should be understood within these colonial and postcolonial histories of science and technology