A recent op-ed by genetic counselor Laura Hercher illuminated a sticky situation in which more and more consumers find themselves. Matt Fender ordered a spit kit from direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing company 23andMe, downloaded his raw data, and ran them...
This April, when investigators used the publicly available genetic database GEDMatch to hunt down the long sought-after Golden State Killer, many of us in the genetics universe had a mixed reaction. Yippee! This long-standing cold case of a serial murder and rapist is...
On June 13, 2013, in the case of the Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that human genes cannot be patented in the U.S. because DNA is a “product of nature.” The Court decided that...
Last week in Genetic Privacy Part 1, we discussed the potential harm done when a patient chooses not to share her data with other family members. Such arguments, and the argument that widely sharing genetic data would advance scientific research, have made some...
