An explosive increase in the quantity of genomic data being collected, used and shared is propelling current and ongoing research into privacy protections related to personal genetic information. A team at Vanderbilt University Medical Center has reexamined the literature surrounding online threats and protections against genomic data leaks from both a legal and technical perspective.
Their review, published in Nature Reviews Genetics, draws on the work of Vanderbilt’s Center for Genetic Privacy and Identity in Community Settings (GetPreCiSe), an NIH Center of Excellence in Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications Research. The center was the first to propose the combined legal and technical framework to address ongoing issues.
“The techies and the lawyers and the regulatory experts do not talk to each other on a daily basis,” said GetPreCiSe co-director Bradley Malin, PhD, Accenture Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Biostatistics, and Computer Science at Vanderbilt.