NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – The University of Minnesota announced today that it has been awarded a three-year, $2 million National Institutes of Health grant to develop a legal framework for genomic medicine.
The project, called LawSeqSM, will require the expertise of legal, ethics, and scientific experts from across the US to analyze the state of genomic law and develop guidance for legal issues that may arise as genomic medicine is translated into clinical applications.
LawSeqSM will be led by three principal investigators: Susan Wolf, a University of Minnesota expert on law, medicine, and public policy; Ellen Wright Clayton, a Vanderbilt University expert on the ethical, legal, and policy questions raised by genomics and co-director of an NIH-funded Center of Excellence in Genomic Science; and Frances Lawrenz, a University of Minnesota expert in qualitative and quantitative research methods.
These investigators will recruit a group of 22 researchers from academia, industry, and clinical care, with the aim of clarifying current law, addressing gaps, and generating "forward-looking recommendations needed to create the legal foundation for successfully translating genomics into clinical care," the university said.