Genomics researcher to talk about ethical/legal issues

Charles Dupras, a postdoctoral fellow at the Center of Genomics and Policy at McGill University, will present “Protecting Privacy in the Multi-omic Era: A Case Study of Ethical and Legal Challenges Emerging with Epigenetics” at 11:30 a.m., Tuesday, Jan. 28, in the Barnhardt Student Activity Center, Salon A.

The size and number of databases set up for the purposes of scientific or biomedical research have rapidly increased, and today, they contain massive amounts of genetic data about individuals and populations. While the accumulation and increased circulation of genetic data has captured much attention by ethicists and legal scholars over the past decades, the potential privacy issues raised specifically by the diversification of omics data, and their intended or unintended integration into multi-omic repositories and computation systems, have been largely overlooked. In his Jan. 28 presentation, Dupras will make a case for a multi-omic approach to the protection of privacy.

The UNC Charlotte Center for Professional and Applied Ethics is sponsoring this talk, the second in its epigenetics series. RSVPs for this luncheon/workshop are requested.