Guest Lecture by Professor Robert Cook-Deegan, MD

"Truth and ConSequences: Implications of Ubiquitous DNA Sequencing"

Abstract

We all know DNA sequencing has become much cheaper and more widely available even faster than computer chips did under "Moore's Law." What we do not know yet is what that means and how it will change our world. The proliferation of DNA sequencing poses the predictable uncertainty of a nascent, powerful technology that is fated to spread rapidly. Some issues, however, are predictable, and some questions will foreseeably arise. These include: Is DNA sequencing a great big "genetic test" that will follow the same framework as past genetic testing? Will it be driven by medical uses or other uses? Who will control the data? Will it threaten privacy in new and important ways? Will it provide benefits we can only glimpse from 2012? Now is the time to be thinking about the policy consequences, before practices become frozen in place. This talk will attempt to project a preliminary map of policy issues that will need to be addressed in the age of ubiquitous DNA sequencing.

Biography

Professor Robert Cook-Deegan, MD is a Research Professor specialising in Genome Ethics, Law & Policy. He is the director of the Duke  for Genome Sciences, Duke University, USA

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