13,000 Volunteer To Put Personal Genomes Online 126
Lucas123 writes "The Personal Genome Project, which opened itself up to the public on April 25, has to date signed up 13,000 of the target 100,000 volunteers needed to create the world's first publicly accessible genome database. Volunteers will go through a battery of written tests and then offer DNA samples from which their genetic code will be derived and then published to help scientists discover links between genes and hereditary traits. While the Personal Genome Project won't publish names, just about everything else will be made public, including photos and complete medical histories. Scientists hope to some day have millions of genomes in the database."
Re:Data Control (Score:5, Informative)
'It may well be anonymous today, but that can not be guaranteed into the future.'
It's not that anonymous even today:
'While volunteers won't have their names published with their genomic information, Church said the subjects are completely aware that anyone familiar with them can deduct from the photos and background information who they are.'
Some early volunteers in the pilot program have gone even further than this, and explicitly linked their names to the public data.
Re:Data Control (Score:5, Informative)
That's why the US has GINA [genome.gov] (Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) of 2008).
Whether it'll actually work is a separate issue. One of the points of this project is that trying to keep your genetic information private is a losing battle and that it might be better/neutral to just be open about it.
Re:Plural? (Score:2, Informative)
Isn't the plural of "volunteer", "volunteers"?
For the noun, yes. For the verb, no.