Researchers at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine have received a four-year, $4-million grant from the National Institutes of Health to establish a new center for the study of privacy concerns associated with the use of genomic information, the NIH announced today, May 17.

17 May 2016, EurekAlert

The Vanderbilt Center for Genetic Privacy and Identity in Community Settings will examine the likelihood that lapses in protecting genomic information allow people to be identified, how people perceive such risks, and how effective legal and policy efforts are in reducing them…Read more >>>

The American Society of Human Genetics said this week that it opposes recent revised regulations by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that affect the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA).

17 May 2016, GenomeWeb

EEOC proposed the changes, which apply to employer-backed wellness programs, last year and provided stakeholders with an opportunity to comment by the end of January. A number of advocacy groups and stakeholders objected to the proposal, arguing that it would weaken genetic anti-discrimination protection…Read more >>>

According to the latest report published by Credence Research, Inc. “Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing: Market Growth, Future Prospects and Competitive Analysis, 2016-2022,” the direct-to-consumer genetic testing market was valued at USD 70.2 Mn in 2015, and is expected to reach USD 340 Mn by 2022, expanding at a CAGR of 25.1% from 2016 to 2022.

10 May 2016, Mobile Computing Today

Conventionally, genetic tests have been made available only through healthcare providers at recommendations from physicians . Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing is defined as genetic teats marketed directly to individuals through agencies such as internet, pharmacies and others. DTC genetic testing market is predominantly driven by growing awareness in public about…Read more >>>

In an open-access pilot project, researchers from Baylor College of Medicine have demonstrated that cancer patients are willing and able to provide “true informed consent” for sharing their genome sequencing data.

1 March 2016, GenomeWeb

They hope that open datasets of “real world” cases will be useful for advancing precision cancer treatment and spur public discussion about protecting patients’ privacy while respecting their autonomy to share data freely to advance science. According to researchers led by Baylor’s Lauren Becnel and Richard Gibbs, the pilot project, in which seven patients agreed to openly share data from sequencing their tumor and matched normal samples, is the first of its kind in the cancer setting…Read more >>>

Two US Senators introduced a bipartisan legislation this week seeking to tighten protections for volunteers who contribute genetic and other identifiable information for research studies.

7 April 2016, GenomeWeb

The Genetic Research Privacy Protection Act (S.2744), introduced by Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Mike Enzi (R-WY) to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, would ensure that researchers conducting federally funded studies cannot reveal genetic information that can identify individuals who donated their data. Yesterday, during a session of the HELP committee, legislators voted to attach S.2744 as an amendment to Senator Lamar Alexander’s (R-Tenn.) “Advancing Precision Medicine Act of 2016.”…Read more >>>

Linking clinical and phenotype variables across data sets will both power precision medicine studies and introduce new privacy risks

25 February 2016, Nature methods

The rapid emergence of cost-effective genomic sequencing is providing unprecedented insight into the genetic variation between individuals. Driven by initiatives in precision medicine, researchers are increasingly focused on understanding the relationships among genetic variations, human disease and clinical outcome…Read more >>>

Sure Genomics, a startup based in Utah, launched a genetic testing service today that costs a whopping $2,500 upfront, with an additional $150 subscription fee that guarantees DNA analysis updates every six months.

9 February 2016, The Verge

The price is unusually high for a direct-to-consumer genetics company, since 23andMe and Ancestry offer genetics reports for $199 and $99, respectively. But Sure Genomics says it’s worth it; customers who pay the fee will get their entire genome sequenced, and unlike others, the startup says it won’t sell anonymized genetic information to third parties to turn a profit…Read more >>>

Can you imagine seeing the face of your unborn child at age 18? Things are moving quickly in the field of genomics.

2 February 2016, Science Magazine

The first article of this column described the coming Practical Genomics Revolution as evidenced by the creation of 11 genomic medicine centres under the auspices of the 100,000 Genomes projects led by Genomics England. Now, the initial results are in. More than 6,000 genomes have been analysed and the project will receive another £250 million in funding in 2016…Read more >>>

Researchers in Switzerland have explored the use of encrypted genomic data for computing and reporting clinical genetic test results in order to help protect the privacy of patients.

19 January 2016, GenomeWeb

In a pilot study published online last week in Genetics in Medicine, the team, led by scientists at the École Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne and the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics in Lausanne, tested the implementation of privacy-preserving genetic testing and reporting for 230 HIV-infected patients…Read more >>>

Privacy is a fanciful delusion in the post-genomic era, or so said Christopher Mason during a consumer genomics panel at this week’s J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.

14 January 2016, MedCityNews

“I think privacy is going to be really hard to keep, unless you walk around in a hermetically sealed plastic suit,” said Mason, an assistant professor of computational genomics at Weill Cornell Medical College. “You lose cells wherever you walk.”…Read more >>>