Conceptualizing the public good for genomics in the global South: a cross-disciplinary roundtable dialogue
Since the Human Genome Project, initiatives to genetically sequence and profile populations around the world have expanded rapidly. The rationales guiding this expansion are diverse: on the one hand, the concentration of genetic technologies in the global North threatens to widen the yawning gaps in...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Genetics |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2025.1523396/full |
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| author | Tayyaba Jiwani Adjua Akinwumi Jocelyn Cheé-Santiago Yulia Egorova Gabriel Frassetto Ricardo di Lazzaro Filho Iscia Lopes-Cendes Mercedes Okumura José Antonio Alonso Pavón Alice B. Popejoy David Skinner Peter Wade Matthias Wienroth Ernesto Schwartz-Marin Michel Satya Naslavsky Michel Satya Naslavsky |
| author_facet | Tayyaba Jiwani Adjua Akinwumi Jocelyn Cheé-Santiago Yulia Egorova Gabriel Frassetto Ricardo di Lazzaro Filho Iscia Lopes-Cendes Mercedes Okumura José Antonio Alonso Pavón Alice B. Popejoy David Skinner Peter Wade Matthias Wienroth Ernesto Schwartz-Marin Michel Satya Naslavsky Michel Satya Naslavsky |
| author_sort | Tayyaba Jiwani |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Since the Human Genome Project, initiatives to genetically sequence and profile populations around the world have expanded rapidly. The rationales guiding this expansion are diverse: on the one hand, the concentration of genetic technologies in the global North threatens to widen the yawning gaps in healthcare available in advanced versus developing nations. On the other, more ‘genetic diversity’ in global databases can reveal new points of genetic variation associated with health or disease. This promises to pave the way to a more personalized medicine of the future—more powerful and prosperous, with tailored prevention regimens and genetic treatments targeted to every individual’s specific genetic vulnerabilities. These rationales are advanced to claim a public good case for genomics. However, the expansion of genomics to underserved populations in the global South has provoked many sociopolitical and ethical challenges. Critics have pointed to the inevitable entanglement of genomics with private commercial interests. These concerns are overlaid on deeper anxieties stemming from global asymmetries in scientific and technological power, and historical patterns of value extraction from colonized and marginalized populations. How then do we disentangle the public good? How do we build a genomics science that is just and equitable for the vast majority of the world? This conversation convenes leading genomics practitioners and critical science studies scholars to address these questions. We draw on an ongoing transdisciplinary dialogue, integrating the natural and social sciences, and bring together perspectives and scholars from the global North and South. Our aim is to cultivate a more holistic and grounded engagement with the scientific and political challenges we face, to truly understand the requirements of a genomics that centers the question of justice. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-6585e0cebfa34990ba8a8752ccf0cd8f |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1664-8021 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Genetics |
| spelling | doaj-art-6585e0cebfa34990ba8a8752ccf0cd8f2025-08-20T03:28:40ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Genetics1664-80212025-07-011610.3389/fgene.2025.15233961523396Conceptualizing the public good for genomics in the global South: a cross-disciplinary roundtable dialogueTayyaba Jiwani0Adjua Akinwumi1Jocelyn Cheé-Santiago2Yulia Egorova3Gabriel Frassetto4Ricardo di Lazzaro Filho5Iscia Lopes-Cendes6Mercedes Okumura7José Antonio Alonso Pavón8Alice B. Popejoy9David Skinner10Peter Wade11Matthias Wienroth12Ernesto Schwartz-Marin13Michel Satya Naslavsky14Michel Satya Naslavsky15Department of Sociology, Philosophy, and Anthropology, University of Exeter, Exeter, United KingdomSchool of Communication, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, CanadaSchool of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United StatesDepartment of Anthropology, University of Durham, Durham, United KingdomDepartment of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, Biosciences Institute, University of São Paulo, SãoPaulo, BrazilDasa Genômica/Genera, Genômica, SãoPaulo, BrazilDepartment of Medical Genetics and Genomic Medicine, School of Medical Sciences; and Brazilian Institute of Neuroscience and Neurotechnology (BRAINN), University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, São Paulo, BrazilDepartment of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, Biosciences Institute, University of São Paulo, SãoPaulo, BrazilFaculty of Sciences, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), México City, MexicoDepartment of Public Health Sciences, University of California, Davis, United States0School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, United Kingdom1Department of Social Anthropology, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom2School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United KingdomDepartment of Sociology, Philosophy, and Anthropology, University of Exeter, Exeter, United KingdomDepartment of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, Biosciences Institute, University of São Paulo, SãoPaulo, Brazil3Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, SãoPaulo, BrazilSince the Human Genome Project, initiatives to genetically sequence and profile populations around the world have expanded rapidly. The rationales guiding this expansion are diverse: on the one hand, the concentration of genetic technologies in the global North threatens to widen the yawning gaps in healthcare available in advanced versus developing nations. On the other, more ‘genetic diversity’ in global databases can reveal new points of genetic variation associated with health or disease. This promises to pave the way to a more personalized medicine of the future—more powerful and prosperous, with tailored prevention regimens and genetic treatments targeted to every individual’s specific genetic vulnerabilities. These rationales are advanced to claim a public good case for genomics. However, the expansion of genomics to underserved populations in the global South has provoked many sociopolitical and ethical challenges. Critics have pointed to the inevitable entanglement of genomics with private commercial interests. These concerns are overlaid on deeper anxieties stemming from global asymmetries in scientific and technological power, and historical patterns of value extraction from colonized and marginalized populations. How then do we disentangle the public good? How do we build a genomics science that is just and equitable for the vast majority of the world? This conversation convenes leading genomics practitioners and critical science studies scholars to address these questions. We draw on an ongoing transdisciplinary dialogue, integrating the natural and social sciences, and bring together perspectives and scholars from the global North and South. Our aim is to cultivate a more holistic and grounded engagement with the scientific and political challenges we face, to truly understand the requirements of a genomics that centers the question of justice.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2025.1523396/fulljusticegenetic diversitysovereigntycapitalisminequalitygovernance |
| spellingShingle | Tayyaba Jiwani Adjua Akinwumi Jocelyn Cheé-Santiago Yulia Egorova Gabriel Frassetto Ricardo di Lazzaro Filho Iscia Lopes-Cendes Mercedes Okumura José Antonio Alonso Pavón Alice B. Popejoy David Skinner Peter Wade Matthias Wienroth Ernesto Schwartz-Marin Michel Satya Naslavsky Michel Satya Naslavsky Conceptualizing the public good for genomics in the global South: a cross-disciplinary roundtable dialogue Frontiers in Genetics justice genetic diversity sovereignty capitalism inequality governance |
| title | Conceptualizing the public good for genomics in the global South: a cross-disciplinary roundtable dialogue |
| title_full | Conceptualizing the public good for genomics in the global South: a cross-disciplinary roundtable dialogue |
| title_fullStr | Conceptualizing the public good for genomics in the global South: a cross-disciplinary roundtable dialogue |
| title_full_unstemmed | Conceptualizing the public good for genomics in the global South: a cross-disciplinary roundtable dialogue |
| title_short | Conceptualizing the public good for genomics in the global South: a cross-disciplinary roundtable dialogue |
| title_sort | conceptualizing the public good for genomics in the global south a cross disciplinary roundtable dialogue |
| topic | justice genetic diversity sovereignty capitalism inequality governance |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2025.1523396/full |
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