This proposal rests on the assumption that rapid expansion of large sample gene discovery and disclosure projects raise major ethical, legal, social, and policy challenges, to such an extent that it constitutes a significant and urgent public health need. Recognizing the urgency of these challenges, and drawing on three unique projects at UNC-CH involving large-sample gene discovery and disclosure, we request funding for a two-year Exploratory (P20) grant to conduct the planning necessary to create a Center of Excellence on ELSI Issues in Large Sample Gene Discovery and Disclosure. Our goal is to develop an infrastructure to maximize collaborative research, create partnerships with relevant constituencies, identify critical issues that must be addressed, and collect sufficient pilot data to propose a well-integrated center in which state-of-the-art ELSI research can be conducted to inform public policy. An interdisciplinary group of investigators at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), in partnership with key external partners, will engage in a range of activities to support five specific aims: (1) expand and strengthen an interdisciplinary team of investigators, creating an organizational structure to design and implement multi-disciplinary investigations of complex and rapidly emerging ELSI issues; (2) establish partnerships with key constituents to facilitate joint awareness of emerging ELSI issues in large sample studies, develop research collaboration, and identify effective mechanisms to disseminate research and influence policy and practice; (3) use three major projects to collect preliminary data in preparation for major research initiatives to be proposed as part of a forthcoming CEER application; (4) design a training component to enable the next generation of ELSI scholars, genome researchers, clinical and social scientists, and researchers in law, bioethics and the humanities to develop independent research programs that address important ELSI problems; and (5) fully develop a vision for a Center of Excellence application.
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