With a one-day, $1,000 genome sequence in sight, a 20-minute, $100 … The panel, titled “Genetic Privacy: The Right (Not) to Know,” was a lively one,

06 May 2015, Stanford Medicine

When I was a biology grad student in the early 1980s, we used to joke about people who were getting their PhDs by spending six long years sequencing a single gene. They worked around the clock seven days a week – and seven nights, too, sleeping on their lab benches when they slept at all. – See more at: http://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2015/05/06/stanford-panel-big-issues-will-loom-when-everyone-has-their-genomic-sequence-on-a-thumb-drive/#sthash.9FDPZrBP.dpuf … Read more >>>

The New Orleans Advocate recently published a shocking story that details the very real threats to privacy and civil liberties posed by law enforcement access to private genetic databases and familial DNA searching.

01 May 2015, Electronic Frontier Foundation

In 1996, a young woman named Angie Dodge was murdered in her apartment in a small town in Idaho. Although the police collected DNA from semen left at the crime scene, they haven’t been able to match the DNA to existing profiles in any criminal database, and the murder has never been solved …Read more >>>

Scientists developed the app to help recruit people for a massive genetic study. The project, which could draw scrutiny from ethicists and federal regulators, has the potential to go viral with Facebook’s help.

31 Mar 2015, BuzzFeed News

“Some people are going to freak out about this,” Michelle Meyer, an assistant professor at the Union Graduate College-Mt. Sinai Bioethics Program, told BuzzFeed News. “DNA and Facebook are two words that most people do not want to hear in the same sentence.”… Read more >>>

NASA research on Mark and Scott Kelly may never get published.

26 Mar 2015, Nature News

Researchers will gather reams of genomic, molecular, physiological and other data on Kelly and compare it to his Earth-dwelling identical twin, retired astronaut Mark Kelly. Differences between the brothers could reveal how the body copes with extreme environments. But results from the US$1.5-million twin study may never see the light of day. The Kellys are having their entire genomes sequenced, and if they discover sensitive medical information they do not want shared — such as susceptibility to particular diseases — the results may never be published… Read more >>>

Large genome databases are starting to reveal critical health information—even about people who have not contributed their DNA.

25 Mar 2015, MIT Technology Review

The CEO of an Icelandic gene-hunting company says he is able to identify everyone from that country who has a deadly cancer risk, but has been unable to warn people of the danger because of ethics rules governing DNA research… Read more >>>

Encrypted analysis of data in the cloud would allow secure access to sensitive information.

23 Mar 2015, Nature News

The dream for tomorrow’s medicine is to understand the links between DNA and disease — and to tailor therapies accordingly. But scientists working to realize such ‘personalized’ or ‘precision’ medicine have a problem: how to keep genetic data and medical records secure while still enabling the massive, cloud-based analyses needed to make meaningful associations. Now, tests of an emerging form of data encryption suggest that the dilemma can be solved… Read more >>>

As the Department of Health starts to draw a map of thousands of genomes, will it keep its promise to anonymise our data?

10 Mar 2015, The Guardian

With the UK launch of 23andMe’s home DNA testing kit, the legalisation of mitochondrial DNA transfer, and the 100,000 Genome Project underway, optimism abounds about the science of genetics delivering on its early promise. But there is also cause for greater caution and oversight than some biotechnology enthusiasts would like to admit… Read more >>>

Should commercial companies share genetic information for research purposes? Is it an invasion of privacy or is the potential for scientific breakthrough more important?

3 Mar 2015, Genome Web

In addition to its genetic testing plans, 23andMe also offers its access to its database for research — it has announced deals with Genentech, Pfizer, and others — and the New York Times has asked a panel of experts this week to weigh in on the resulting questions regarding anonymity and privacy… Read more >>>

A global network of millions of genomes could be medicine’s next great advance.

18 Feb 2015, MIT Technology Review

Noah is a six-year-old suffering from a disorder without a name. This year, his physicians will begin sending his genetic information across the Internet to see if there’s anyone, anywhere, in the world like him… Read more >>>

Scientists are starting to open their DNA databases online, creating a network that could pave the way for gene analysis at a new scale.

17 Dec 2014, MIT Technology Review

A coalition of geneticists and computer programmers calling itself the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health is developing protocols for exchanging DNA information across the Internet. The researchers hope their work could be as important to medical science as HTTP, the protocol created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, was to the Web… Read more >>>