Current Grants
SCBE brings in a significant number of grants from federal sources as well as from private foundations. In addition, the Center for Integration of Research on Genetics and Ethics (CIRGE) was established at Stanford/SCBE in September 2004. It is one of four interdisciplinary Centers of Excellence in Ethical, Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) research created by the National Human Genome Research Institute of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, to proactively identify and deliberate ethical, legal and social issues in current and emerging genetic research.
The New Genetics: Electronic Tools for Educational Innovation is a project funded by the National Science Foundation to create, produce and evaluate an innovative set of educational materials about genetics and genomics for use in a broad spectrum of undergraduate courses and institutions. The project is designed to engage student interest in cutting edge science by creating highly integrated educational materials that combine genetic and genomic science, technological concepts, and environmental, agricultural and biomedical appplications with societal and ethical issues.
Social Networking and Personal Genomics: Emerging Issues for Health Research is a project funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) to discover the impact of direct-to-consumer personal genomic information sharing on social networks and human genomics research. The project will study and map how and with whom individuals share as well as how they are influenced by personal genomic information in order to understand broader ethical and social issues facing the direct-to-consumer personal genomic industry and human genomic research.
Studies of the Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) of Human Microbiome Research
The goal of this NIH project is to devise an approach to examine the ELSI issues associated with microbiome research, using the frameworks of constructive technology assessment (CTA) and value-sensitive design (VSD). These approaches are designed to evaluate technology and research while specifically incorporating social context and values and are well suited to evaluating rapidly-moving and boundary-challenging technologies.
Genetic Research & the Navajo Nation: Context of & Attitudes to the Moratorium
The Navajo Nation placed a moratorium on genetic research studies in 2002, yet the tribe has high rates of genetic diseases and disorders. Historical distrust, fears of exploitation and limited understanding of genetic research have played a role in the placement of the moratorium, yet no formal studies have been carried out to date to identify the key concerns, needs and desires of the Navajo regarding genetic research. The project goals are to map the context and ethical issues around the moratorium on genetic studies and interview Navajo individuals on the current attitudes and opinions related to genetic research. The impact of this research could have implications for genetics and formal policy on genetic research studies on the Navajo Nation or in other indigenous groups.
Center for Clinical and Translational Education and Research – Ethics Core
The overarching mission and goal of the Stanford University School of Medicine is to translate discoveries into medical practice and clinical care. This NIH-funded project’s goal is to reassess, refine and refocus transformation of the clinical research enterprise. Ethics play a central role in this translational process, particularly given the tremendous ethical and regulatory challenges posed by cutting edge technologies, including stem cell research. Integrating ethics into the structure and culture of the research process is essential. Bioethics is needed to maintain and up-to-date understanding of scientific and translational developments in order to understand how ethical and regulatory frameworks do or do not apply, and develop new frameworks where necessary. The need for robust ethics support spans all areas of biomedical research but is especially obvious when research activities are undertaken in people. This project has three aims: provide ethics training throughout the continuum of education, provide early ethical intervention in the CTR (clinical translational research) process through integration into the support offered by SCCTER (Stanford Center for Clinical and Translational Education and Research), and transform the culture of research by developing innovative approaches to ethical dimensions of CTR.
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