Article source: Kris Vette, Stuff
OPINION: The mapping of the full human genome in the early 2000s is one of humanity’s greatest scientific achievements, revolutionising medical care through early prevention and the targeted treatment of disease.
Incredibly, by 2025, 60 million people in the United States alone will have had their DNA sequenced and analysed for healthcare purposes.
But clinicians and researchers, including in a recent article in the New Zealand Medical Journal, have raised concerns about the potential for the misuse, theft, or discriminatory use of DNA data obtained from genomic testing, including potential discrimination by health and life insurance companies.
It’s not a new concern, and my role in founding a genomic data encryption start-up, GeneCrypt (run out of Unitec’s Cybersecurity Lab) was a response to the need.
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