The growing internet market for personal genomics was the subject of an intimate and lively workshop hosted by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Maastricht University from September 13th – 14 th. While the title of the workshop was ‘Genetics Goes Online’, scholars who attended went offline for two days to share and discuss ideas arising from their work on direct-to-consumer testing.
Participants travelled from the east and west coasts of North America, across Europe and within The Netherlands to attend the workshop, enriching discussion with local observations and international comparisons. The variety of disciplinary backgrounds of participants (science and technology studies; ethics; philosophy; sociology, law; anthropology; and clinical genetics) also facilitated rich, critical discussions from a range of perspectives.
The workshop was organised by Anna Harris (University of Exeter), Sally Wyatt (Maastricht University/KNAW) and Susan Kelly (University of Exeter), with the kind help of Wilma Lieben. It was generously funded by Universiteitsfonds Limburg/SWOL and the Technology and Science Studies group, Maastricht University. The workshop marked the approaching end of the two-year project, ‘Selling genetic tests online: User perspectives on direct-to-consumer psychiatric genetic tests’, funded by NWO-ESRC, conducted by Anna, Sally and Susan.
The feedback about the workshop was very positive, with participants appreciating the intimate format, having pre-circulated papers and generous time for discussion. High praise was also received for the beautiful flower arrangement organised by Wilma, the delicious dinner at Witloof and the flessenlikkers distributed by Sally to all of the non-Dutch visitors!
