UC Berkeley drops plans to release personal genetic information to incoming freshmen
By Lisa Krieger, San Jose Mercury News | 08. 12. 2010
[Quotes CGS's Jesse Reynolds]
The University of California Berkeley has dropped plans to release personal genetic information to incoming freshmen, following instruction by state officials.
The educational program, called "Bring Your Genes to Cal," came under fire by the California Department of Public Health because of state rules prohibiting gene testing outside a medical setting.
Health officials ruled Wednesday that the university could not proceed because it failed to obtain a physician's order for each student and process samples at a state-approved lab for analysis. The laws are designed to assure accuracy and quality of medical tests.
About 700 of the 5,500 incoming students have already sent in samples, on a voluntary and anonymous basis, to participate in what was intended to be a way to teach students about the growing role of genetics in daily life. In addition to the tests, it planned to provide lectures and discussions with ethicists, statisticians, biologists and philosophers about gene testing.
At a Thursday news conference, UC Berkeley professor of genetics Jasper Rine said that while the university still plans to analyze the DNA samples in a...
Related Articles
By Stephanie M. Lee, BuzzFeed | 09.18.2017
At the Ravens vs. Browns game on Sunday, a biotech startup had planned to hand out tens of thousands of free genetic tests. But the promotion was axed at the last minute after questions from the Maryland health department.
A...
The direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing industry has been around for just over a decade. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has successively ignored it, worried about it, paused it, and limited it; as of now, it appears to be...
By Sarah Buhr, Tech Crunch | 09.09.2017
23andMe is best known for its $199 at-home spit-tube DNA test, but the consumer genetics company has been making strides in the last few years to get into drug development and research.
The company first began making moves early in...
By Michael White, Pacific Standard Magazine | 09.13.2017
Four crucial facts about race, sex, and biology that contradict this messy argument.
In America, we've had a long history of people in positions of privilege and power who argue that innate biological differences between races or sexes explain why...
