Work

Salutogenomics: embracing the full spectrum of human health

Year: 2026

Type: review

Abstract: Modern biomedical genomics has principally centered on disease, leveraging genomic insights to identify disease-associated genotypes. While valuable, this approach is overly reliant on a positivist, disease-centric perspective that often goes hand-in-hand with patterns like deficit framing, racialized medical stereotyping, and genetic determinism. These practices and their underlying beliefs are detrimental for patients, who experience worse health outcomes as a result, and for participant communities, who endure associated stigmas. This commentary seeks to examine the consequences of this narrow lens and to describe the benefits of an alternative approach: salutogenomics, which highlights the full spectrum of human health. Additionally, we explore how adopting diverse knowledge production paradigms could refashion Western genomic methodologies.

Source: Trends in Genetics

DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2025.12.004

Authors: Noah Collins, Grace Heyborne, Agustín Fuentes, Justin Lund, Melissa Ilardo

Institutions: Princeton University, University of Utah, California State University, Fullerton, Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences

Language: English

Topic: Race, Genetics, and Society

Subfield: Genetics

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $7,030