We need treatments based on actual and not assumed genetic variation.Posted in Excerpts/Quotes on 2022-03-30 03:05Z by Steven |
We need treatments based on actual and not assumed genetic variation. That means assessing the patterns of diversity that reflect the distribution of human genetic variation across the globe. To this end, genetic ancestry should be understood as a continuum that it is not categorized in such a way that serves as a surrogate for race (40). Contemporary usage of continental ancestry categories (e.g., European, Middle Eastern, South Asian, Oceanic, East Asian, American, and African) serves as an example of how presumed “ancestral” geographies are assumed as equivalent to biological categories and serve as a false proxy for race. Such groupings correspond to Western racial categorizations and assume genetic homogeneity based on geographical separation, but these groupings misrepresent the actual distribution of genetic variants and neglect continuous movement of people and the resulting degree of mixture across global populations.
Talia Krainc and Agustín Fuentes, “Genetic ancestry in precision medicine is reshaping the race debate,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 119, Number 12, Article e2203033119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2203033119.
