TY - JOUR
T1 - Race and ancestry in biomedical research
T2 - Exploring the challenges
AU - Caulfield, Timothy
AU - Fullerton, Stephanie M.
AU - Ali-Khan, Sarah E.
AU - Arbour, Laura
AU - Burchard, Esteban G.
AU - Cooper, Richard S.
AU - Hardy, Billie Jo
AU - Harry, Simrat
AU - Hyde-Lay, Robyn
AU - Kahn, Jonathan
AU - Kittles, Rick
AU - Koenig, Barbara A.
AU - Lee, Sandra S.J.
AU - Malinowski, Michael
AU - Ravitsky, Vardit
AU - Sankar, Pamela
AU - Scherer, Stephen W.
AU - Séguin, Béatrice
AU - Shickle, Darren
AU - Suarez-Kurtz, Guilherme
AU - Daar, Abdallah S.
PY - 2009/1/21
Y1 - 2009/1/21
N2 - The use of race in biomedical research has, for decades, been a source of social controversy. However, recent events, such as the adoption of racially targeted pharmaceuticals, have raised the profile of the race issue. In addition, we are entering an era in which genomic research is increasingly focused on the nature and extent of human genetic variation, often examined by population, which leads to heightened potential for misunderstandings or misuse of terms concerning genetic variation and race. Here, we draw together the perspectives of participants in a recent interdisciplinary workshop on ancestry and health in medicine in order to explore the use of race in research issue from the vantage point of a variety of disciplines. We review the nature of the race controversy in the context of biomedical research and highlight several challenges to policy action, including restrictions resulting from commercial or regulatory considerations, the difficulty in presenting precise terminology in the media, and drifting or ambiguous definitions of key terms.
AB - The use of race in biomedical research has, for decades, been a source of social controversy. However, recent events, such as the adoption of racially targeted pharmaceuticals, have raised the profile of the race issue. In addition, we are entering an era in which genomic research is increasingly focused on the nature and extent of human genetic variation, often examined by population, which leads to heightened potential for misunderstandings or misuse of terms concerning genetic variation and race. Here, we draw together the perspectives of participants in a recent interdisciplinary workshop on ancestry and health in medicine in order to explore the use of race in research issue from the vantage point of a variety of disciplines. We review the nature of the race controversy in the context of biomedical research and highlight several challenges to policy action, including restrictions resulting from commercial or regulatory considerations, the difficulty in presenting precise terminology in the media, and drifting or ambiguous definitions of key terms.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77953415089&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1186/gm8
DO - 10.1186/gm8
M3 - Letter
C2 - 19348695
AN - SCOPUS:77953415089
SN - 1756-994X
VL - 1
JO - Genome Medicine
JF - Genome Medicine
IS - 1
M1 - gm8
ER -