UCal Berkeley Pulls Back Freshman Gene Tests
By GenomeWeb,
GenomeWeb [Quotes CGS's Richard Hayes and Jesse Reynolds]
| 08. 13. 2010
NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The University of California at Berkeley will significantly modify its plan to run genetic tests on 5,000 incoming freshmen this year as part of an educational program after state health regulators judged that the plan involved clinical and medical information that required special handling, the University said in a conference call yesterday.
After meeting with the California Department of Public Health on Wednesday and unsuccessfully making its case for the program, Berkeley agreed that it would not share the test results directly with the incoming students, but it still plans to run the tests anonymously and to conduct other related educational projects.
The tests were intended to give freshman an educational experience about medicine, science, and science policy by testing 5,000 volunteers for three particular genetic variants for metabolism of alcohol, lactose, and folic acid.
But soon after the plan was announced last spring it began to draw fire from outside groups. Critics said that the project would inevitably lead to invasions of student privacy, and that it was unethical because it amounted to the...
Related Articles
By Nicholas Wade, The New York Times | 04.30.2026
“J. Craig Venter” via Wikimedia Commons licensed under CC by 2.5
J. Craig Venter, a scientist and entrepreneur who raced to decode the human genome, died on Wednesday in San Diego. He was 79.
His death was announced by...
By Susan Dominus, The New York Times Magazine | 04.27.2026
Why are babies born young? The most natural phenomenon on earth is actually hard to explain — at least on a cellular level. Consider this problem: The components of conception are old. When a woman gets pregnant, she has...
By Jonathan Basile, Los Ángeles Review of Books | 04.29.2026
WILLIAM BATESON, a foundational figure in the science of genetics at the turn of the last century, once recounted the response of a Scottish soldier to one of his public lectures: “Sir, what ye’re telling us is nothing but Scientific...
By Dr. Coco Newton, Progress Educational Trust | 03.30.2026
Have you ever wondered what it means to have dozens of half-siblings across the world – or to never know where half of your genetic identity comes from? A recent episode of Zembla explores the human consequences of the global...
