Hospital, Drugmaker Developing Vast DNA Database

Improve the News Foundation -

Facts

  • The Mount Sinai Health System in NYC, partnering with pharmaceutical company Regeneron, began an effort this week to create a vast database of patient DNA to be studied by both researchers and the pharma company.
  • The database will be used to research illnesses such as schizophrenia and kidney disease, with Mount Sinai aiming to include one million patients' DNA for genetic sequencing.
  • Though Mount Sinai has said the data will be rendered anonymous and won't be shared with anyone outside of researchers, genealogical databases like Ancestry.com and GEDmatch have previously been used by detectives to help solve crimes.
  • In addition to drug development, researchers hope the database, paired with patient medical records, will provide new insights into how the interplay between genetic and socio-economic factors impacts health.
  • Regeneron has already sequenced and studied the DNA of about 2M "patient volunteers," but Mount Sinai hopes to use its NYC-based database to create a racially and ethnically diverse repository of genetic data.
  • Mount Sinai has been slowly building a bank of gene samples called BioMe for 15 years - currently containing 50K samples - but the health system hopes to expedite the patient enrollment process to reach its goal of 1M.

Sources: New York Times, Ajmc, Nairagator, and Bvc.

Narratives

  • Narrative A as provided by NY Times. The potential of a massive medical and pharmaceutical DNA database raises serious ethical concerns. Not only have the police been known to have obtained people's genetic information from genealogical websites, but collecting someone's DNA today means they'd be collecting the DNA of their children and grandchildren, too, without consent. This is a serious privacy and surveillance issue.
  • Narrative B as provided by NPR: Databases like these aren't just necessary for the healthcare of individuals who give their one-time consent, but for the future of large studies that will very likely revolutionize the healthcare industry and save lives. Medical research institutions have proven over many years that patients can trust them on privacy issues, so Mount Sinai and Regeneron are solid partners for this endeavor.