Admixture mapping: from paradigms of race and ethnicity to population history

Admixture mapping is a whole genome association strategy that takes advantage of population history—or genetic ancestry—to map genes for complex diseases. However, because it uses racial/ethnic groupings to examine differential disease risk, admixture mapping raises ethical and social concerns. While there has been much theoretical commentary regarding the ethical and social implications of population-based genetic research, empirical data from stakeholders most closely involved with these studies is limited. One of the first admixture mapping studies carried out was a scan for Multiple Sclerosis (MS) risk factors in an African-American population. Applying qualitative research methods, we used this example to explore developing views, experiences and perceptions of the ethical and social implications of admixture mapping and other population-based research—their value, risks and benefits, and the future prospects of the field. Additionally, we sought to understand how social and ethical risks might be mitigated, and the benefits of this research optimized. We draw on in-depth, one-on-one interviews with leading population geneticists, genome scientists, bioethicists, and African-Americans with MS. Here we present our findings from this unique group of key informants and stakeholders

The politics of suspects’ geo-genetic origin in France: The conditions, expression, and effects of problematisation

International audienceRecently, genetics has given rise to changes in how people’s origin is conceived. Forensics has started using some of these changes in the shape of new DNA-based tests aimed at determining suspects’ geographic origin. This article analyses how recent practices in this field have been ‘problematised’ in France, in Foucault’s sense of the term, and gives substantial weight to the country’s historical and republican legacy. First, the launch of these genetic tests is examined, looking at the work of actors who helped create the preconditions for this problematisation but at the same time tried to deconstruct it. The paper goes on to focus on how this problematisation is expressed, questioning the arguments used particularly by its opponents who ground their stance in history, law, and science, while also invoking ethical and political concerns regarding data use. Finally, current state regulations on the matter are outlined, showing how ‘points of problematisation’ have been construed in terms of prohibition. The article concludes by underlining the internal tensions (the ‘knot’) of the problematisation process, showing how it highlights changes in contemporary notions of origin and the types of subjects it produces. More generally, the implications of this study for social science research on origin and on the life sciences are also discussed

De/geneticizing caste: population genetic research in South Asia

Recent years have witnessed a number of population genetics studies aiming to explore the ‘genetic profile’ of the South Asian population and of the caste system. This paper examines four genetic studies and their mass media representations, and discusses interviews with leading historians and social scientists whose work has focused on issues of the caste system. Similar to earlier commentators—from colonial scholars and administrators to Hindu reformers and nationalists—who provided different explanations for the origin of the caste system, recent genetic studies have offered conflicting inferences on the nature of castes and tribes of the subcontinent. These studies, the way they were received on the subcontinent, and assayed by historians of caste, tell a story about agendas of geneticization competing with forces of resistance. On the one hand, they signal a new interest in the debate about the relationship between caste and ‘ethnicity’; on the other hand, they are used selectively by different social groups to strengthen their own political agendas, are denied cognitive validity by historians of caste, and never reach a consensus about the history of caste formation