Thursday, October 11, 2007

Prof. Trudo Lemmens, of the Faculty of Law's Health Law and Policy Group, with Research Associate Lori Luther, has launched a new website devoted to providing accessible information about issues related to genetic information, privacy, and the recent phenomenon of "biobanks" (databanks of human genetic information).

This new website, hosted by the Faculty of Law, can be found at www.geneticdatabanks.ca.

Please read the invitation from Prof. Lemmens and Lori Luther, below.

Prof. Trudo Lemmens and Research Associate Lori Luther write:

We would like to introduce you to our website, "Genetic Information, Privacy and Biobanks". This GE3LS website was created as an initiative for the ARCTIC (Assessment of Risk for Colorectal Tumours in Canada) project,* which has been working to develop a predictive test for colon cancer susceptibility that can be incorporated into current population based screening tests.

The website, which features the  ARCTIC project, importantly provides general 'stand alone' information on genetic information, genetic privacy and human genetic research biobanks. Along with brief discussions on a myriad of related issues that include genetic exceptionalism, genetic discrimination, benefit sharing, commercialization, and population and single disease data banks, the website provides links and references to relevant articles, texts and legislation from Canada , the US,  as well as Europe. The website will be updated periodically and is current to March 2007.

We invite you to look at the array of information available on the website, online at: www.geneticdatabanks.ca. We believe that you will find it useful to your work - or simply interesting to peruse! We would appreciate if you would circulate this letter and/or the link to students, academics or researchers you think may be interested. In this way, we hope to be able to reach those who may most benefit from access to this type of website.

*The ARCTIC project is funded by Genome Canada through the Ontario Genomics Institute, by Génome Québec, the Ministère du Développement Économique et Régional et de la Recherche du Québec and the Ontario Cancer Research Network.

With thanks in advance,

Lori Luther,
B.C.L., LL.B, MSc.

Trudo Lemmens,
Lic. Jur., LL.M., D.C.L.
ARCTIC project, GE3LS lead investigator,
Associate Professor, Faculties of Law and Medicine, University of Toronto