Cafe au Guinness
For those of you in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill environs, I will be at Tir Na Nog Irish pub tonight in Raleigh for a science cafe sponsored by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Here’s some blurb:
Science Cafe: Letting it All Hang Out, The Personal Genome Project
Date: May. 19 - May. 19; 6:30-8:30 pm with discussion beginning at 7 pm followed by Q & A
Location: Other - Tir Na Nog, 218 South Blount Street, Raleigh, 919.833.7795
Fee: FreeTwo years ago no one knew what personal genomics was; now it’s everywhere. For a few hundred dollars, you can have a peak at part of your own genome. You can theoretically learn your genetic risks for various diseases. And some companies say you can find romance based on your DNA. But what is all this stuff really? What does it actually mean? What will genomic privacy look like in the digital age? The Harvard-based Personal Genome Project is exploring large-scale DNA sequencing and seeing what happens when genomic data are made public; its organizers hope to help answer some of these questions.
So come on out, have a pint and/or some Irish coffee, and we can talk about 23andMe, exomes ($25,000–yeah baby), privacy and of course, Penguins Hurricanes hockey.
I work as an Assistant Professor in the Duke University Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (although this site and its content are my own).
In 2007 I became the fourth subject in Harvard geneticist George Church's Personal Genome Project. As the PGP moves forward, I am chronicling the dawn of personal genomics, that is, people obtaining their genomic information for whatever reason(s) and figuring out what to do with it. I am interested in the relevant technologies and especially the attendant privacy and other ethical/legal/social issues.
This blog may also discuss some of my non-genome interests or, to paraphrase Dwight Yoakam, "Guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music, etc etc."
The header image comes from the Liz Lerman Dance Exchange's multimedia performance piece, "Ferocious Beauty: Genome."