University of Minnesota’s Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences Awarded NIH Grant
Minneapolis, MN (09/29/2009)—The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) at National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded the University of Minnesota’s Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences a grant of $911,559 for a 2-year project to develop normative consensus recommendations on managing incidental findings and individual research results in genomic research using biobanks and large archives. Prof. Susan M. Wolf, JD, is the Principal Investigator. Co-Investigators are Profs. Jeffrey P. Kahn, PhD, MPH; Frances Lawrenz, PhD; and Brian Van Ness, PhD. The project builds on the Consortium’s highly successful prior NIH-funded project on "Managing Incidental Findings in Human Subjects Research."
The new 2-year project will convene a multidisciplinary working group of national experts in order to analyze and generate recommendations on managing incidental findings and individual research results in genomic research using biobanks and large archives. In order to understand the genetic contribution to a host of diseases and conditions of great importance to public health, scientists are increasingly assembling large biobanks, archiving many individuals' DNA and health information for scientific reanalysis over time. However, there is no clarity about what individual health information, if any, should be given back to those people generous enough to participate by contributing their DNA and health information. Some prominent biobanks are giving back none at all. This project will convene leading experts on bioethics, genomics, biobanking, and law to recommend policies and practices on return of both incidental findings and individual research results that may have importance for the donor.
Prof. Wolf is McKnight Presidential Professor of Law, Medicine & Public Policy; Faegre & Benson Professor of Law; Professor of Medicine; and a Faculty Member in the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota. She is Founding Chair of the University’s Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences and Founding Director of the University’s Joint Degree Program in Law, Health & the Life Sciences.
Read the UMNews article.