Empowering Consumers through Accurate Genomic Tests
By Jeffrey Shuren,
FDA Voice
| 06. 26. 2014
Untitled Document
We’ve come to recognize that almost every disease has a genetic component, and many consumers now are eager to know more about their genetic profiles. They need only send a sample of their DNA collected from their saliva or from a cheek swab to a company, and in exchange they’ll get back information about their genetic risk for development of future disease.
FDA understands and supports people’s interest in having access to their genetic information and believes such information can help them make more informed choices about their health – so long as that genetic information is accurate – that the results are correct, meaningful and written in a way that consumers can understand. FDA reviews genetic tests for medical conditions, whether they are intended to be ordered by a healthcare practitioner or directly by the consumer, to assure that consumers receive accurate test results.
Telling someone they are at high risk for a life-threatening cancer when they are not—or that they are at low risk for diabetes when they actually are at high risk for this chronic...
Related Articles
By Jason Liebowitz, The New Yorker | 03.06.2026
When Talaya Reid was in high school, in a quiet suburb of Philadelphia, she developed fatigue so severe that she spent afternoons napping instead of going out with friends. She was lethargic at school and her grades suffered, but after...
By Scott Solomon, The MIT Press Reader | 02.12.2026
Chris Mason is a man in a hurry.
“Sometimes walking from the subway to the lab takes too long, so I’ll start running,” he told me over breakfast at a bistro near his home in Brooklyn on a crisp...
By Katrina Miller, The New York TImes | 02.05.2026
Joseph Yracheta: The Native Biodata Consortium is the first nonprofit data and sample repository within the geographic bounds and legal jurisdiction of an American Indian nation, on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation in Eagle Butte, S.D.
NativeBio participated in a ...
By David Jensen, California Stem Cell Report | 02.10.2026
Touchy issues involving accusations that California’s $12 billion gene and stem cell research agency is pushing aside “good science” in favor of new priorities and preferences will be aired again in late March at a public meeting in Sacramento.
The...