Hastings Center News

Hastings Partners on Unprecedented Genetics Resource Hub

The Hastings Center is a collaborator on a major new federally funded center – the Center for ELSI Resources and Analysis — that will fill a void in genetics research by collecting and sharing information about its ethical, legal, and social (ELSI) implications. This resource hub, the first of its kind, will enable people grappling with these issues to easily find ethical or policy guidance or published research, and to connect with experts who can help them.

Supported by a $7 million grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute, the five year effort will be led jointly by Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, a Hastings Center Fellow who is chief of the Division of Ethics at Columbia University, and Mildred Cho, associate director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics. Lead investigators at The Hastings Center are Josephine Johnston, the director of research, and Carolyn Neuhaus, a research scholar. They will help identify priority topics and engage in a range of activities to communicate knowledge and expertise with policymakers, educators, and journalists. Products will include workshops, Congressional briefings and policy briefs, and a special report published in the Hastings Center Report. Harvard University is also a collaborator.

“This project is one of several recent initiatives at The Hastings Center that demonstrates our expanded commitment to bringing our work and the work of others in our field to public officials, opinion leaders, and the broader public,” says Johnston.