Personal Genome Evaluation

It has been more than a decade since the Human Genome Project, to sequence the human DNA, was completed. One of the “off-shoots” of the project was the start of direct-to-consumer personal genome companies, where an individual can receive their personal DNA information. This has prompted a number of questions from ethical, legal, business and health care standpoints.

To address some of these questions, Ohio Northern faculty from the colleges of Arts & Sciences, Law, Business Administration and Pharmacy have collaborated to offer a spring semester elective course, Personal Genome Evaluation. While the course will be available for academic credit to ONU students, the blog and Twitter (@pgxcheck) portions of the course are publicly available. This course is open to all students.

Additionally, students from the Virginia Tech Medical School and Anderson University, South Carolina, will take part in the course. There will be periodic quizzes to keep students up to date with the blog. A pre- and post-course survey will evaluate the students' experience. At the end of the course, students will submit a written paper listing three things they learned about personal genome evaluation.

As the health care system continues to evolve and utilize the information provided by the Human Genome Project, we all will need to learn what our DNA is saying. Throughout this blog, individuals will be introduced to “personal genome” information, something society will certainly encounter as health care moves forward.