The Drosophila melanogaster Genetic Reference Panel
Mackay, Richards et al., Nature
North Carolina State University's Trudy Mackay and her colleagues present the Drosophila melanogaster Genetic Reference Panel, "a community resource for analysis of population genomics and quantitative traits."
The FCC Values Data
March 18, 2010
Dan Vorhaus at the Genomics Law Report considers what the Federal Communications Commission's National Broadband Plan could mean for genomics and personalized medicine. In Section 10.4, he says, the FCC conjures the value of data and the importance of consumer access. "In focusing on the value of data the FCC clearly indicates that it’s interested in liberating all types of healthcare data — patient and provider, administrative, research and clinical — from the 'proprietary siloed' systems that do not communicate with one another and therefore cannot be easily exchanged, aggregated or analyzed," Vorhaus writes. Further, the FCC acknowledges the merits of dispersing genomic data, as it "could help researchers better understand the interplay of genetics and the environment." As far as access is concerned, Vorhaus points out that the FCC recognizes the importance of "consumers" having access to their healthcare data. "With seamless access to their raw health data including lab data and prescriptions, consumers could plug the information into specialized applications of their choice and get personalized solutions for an untold number of conditions," the plan reads.