Work

Conflating race and ancestry: Tracing decision points about population descriptors over the precision medicine research life course

Year: 2023

Type: article

Abstract: Responding to calls for human genomics to shift away from the use of race, genomic investigators are coalescing around the possibility of using genetic ancestry. This shift has renewed questions about the use of social and genetic concepts of difference in precision medicine research (PMR). Drawing from qualitative data on five PMR projects, we illustrate negotiations within and between research teams as genomic investigators deliberate on the relevance of race and genetic ancestry for different analyses and contexts. We highlight how concepts of both social and genetic difference are embedded within and travel through research practices, and identify multiple points across the research life course at which conceptual slippage and conflation between race and genetic ancestry occur. We argue that moving beyond race will require PMR investigators to confront the entrenched ways in which race is built into research practices and biomedical infrastructures.

Source: Human Genetics and Genomics Advances

DOI: 10.1016/j.xhgg.2023.100243

Authors: Michael Bentz, Aliya Saperstein, Stephanie M. Fullerton, Janet K. Shim, Sandra Soo-Jin Lee

Institutions: Columbia University, Stanford University, University of Washington, University of California, San Francisco

Language: English

Topic: Race, Genetics, and Society

Subfield: Anthropology

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,300