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PHDNM
10-09-2018, 04:22 AM
Genetics research 'biased towards studying white Europeans'

Ethnic minorities set to miss out on medical benefits of research, scientist warns

People from minority ethnic backgrounds are set to lose out on medical benefits of genetics research due to an overwhelming bias towards studying white European populations, a leading scientist has warned.

Prof David Curtis, a geneticist and psychiatrist at University College London, has called on funding bodies to do more to address the emerging issue that genetic tests developed using samples from white Europeans can give meaningless results when applied to other ethnic groups. The problem could intensify as the clinical applications of genetics expand over the next decade.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/oct/08/genetics-research-biased-towards-studying-white-europeans

Westbrook
10-09-2018, 04:28 AM
“This means that in the UK today we can test a white British subject and tell them their risk of diabetes or schizophrenia, but if they are of a different ethnicity we cannot offer them the test,” said Curtis.


Why can't they just use research and tests developed in the countries where those "different ethnicities" derive from?

Brian O'Conner
10-09-2018, 04:41 AM
True

J. Ketch
10-09-2018, 04:41 AM
What's wrong with this bias? Would it be wrong for African scientists to be biased towards studying Africans or Asian scientists biased towards Asians?