Joan Scott, director of the Genetics and Public Policy Center (GPPC), will leave Johns Hopkins University to become executive director of the National Coalition for Health Professional Education in Genetics (NCHPEG), effective Sept. 7.
The Genetics and Public Policy Center, the National Coalition for Health Professional Education in Genetics, and Genetic Alliance have teamed up to produce educational materials about the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA).
The Center has updated its list of direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies, with information on what kinds of tests each offers. The lists are available sorted by company, disease, and disease category.
The Center applauds today's announcement by the National Institutes of Health that it will establish a voluntary genetic test registry and encourage genetic test providers to share information about the availability and utility of their tests.
As recently reported in the GPPC newsletter, long-awaited federal regulations implementing the landmark Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) of 2008 are nearly complete, and will go into effect by the end of this year.
The combination of technology that permits the analysis of small amounts of DNA, increased availability of testing services, and lack of regulations to protect genetic privacy create an environment ripe for surreptitious testing.
While pharmacogenomics holds great promise, significant scientific, economic, policy, and practical challenges must be faced before the field's potential can be realized.
Considering the life-altering information that paternity testing can provide, it is imperative that laboratories perform the tests accurately and reliably.
1717 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Suite 530 Washington, DC 20036 Phone: 202.663.5971 Fax: 202.663.5992 Contact Webmaster
The Genetics and Public Policy Center is a trusted source of information about, and analysis of, the social, clinical, and policy implications of human genetics.
