From Bedside to Bench: Racial Inclusion in Genomics

My talk explores how minority inclusion policies, developed in the political arena, have impacted genomics. Inclusion policies that were developed for demographic analysis and social redress have come to structure the field’s population knowledge, as the international genome projects that have driven the genomic turn in molecular science have adopted inclusionary measures. Drawing on records of five major projects and interviews with its leaders, I discuss how genomics has moved from population-blind sampling to continent-based, race-conscious sampling. Such race-tailored protocols have produced a network of racialized databases that serve as the reference point for the bulk of the field’s research. This analysis maps the “connective tissue” between population-based biobanks and small-scale studies, while showing how inclusion policies structure global pharmaceutical markets and projects conducted in the Global South.