Communicating the promise, risks, and ethics of large-scale, open space microbiome and metagenome research
Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: The public commonly associates microorganisms with pathogens. This suspicion of microorganisms is understandable, as historically microorganisms have killed more humans than any other agent while remaining largely unknown until the late seventeenth century with the works of van Leeuwenhoek and Kircher. Despite our improved understanding regarding microorganisms, the general public are apt to think of diseases rather than of the majority of harmless or beneficial species that inhabit our bodies and the built and natural environment. As long as microbiome research was confined to labs, the public's exposure to microbiology was limited. The recent launch of global microbiome surveys, such as the Earth Microbiome Project and MetaSUB (Metagenomics and Metadesign of Subways and Urban Biomes) project, has raised ethical, financial, feasibility, and sustainability concerns as to the public's level of understanding and potential reaction to the findings, which, done improperly, risk negative implications for ongoing and future investigations, but done correctly, can facilitate a new vision of "smart cities." To facilitate improved future research, we describe here the major concerns that our discussions with ethics committees, community leaders, and government officials have raised, and we expound on how to address them. We further discuss ethical considerations of microbiome surveys and provide practical recommendations for public engagement.
Source: Microbiome
Language: English
Subfield: Information Systems and Management
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $4,990
Funders: National Science Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Vallee Foundation, Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance, WorldQuant Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
Awards: Community Research Education and Engagement for Data Science (CREEDS), Study of Neural Tube Defects Etiology: Genome and Exposome, Joan & Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University - to monitor the spread of antimicrobial resistance by generating a global map of bacterial species, resistance genes and markers, and modified bases..., CAREER: Quantitative Viral Metagenomics for Water Quality Assessment, Research - Weill Cornell Medical College (2015), UNS: Developing Cross-Assembly Phage As A Marker of Human Fecal Pollution in the Environment
OpenAlex ID: W2763701712