Major U.K. genetics lab accused of misusing African DNA (Republished)

Advocates for genomic research in Africa are worried about fallout from a dispute that has roiled the Wellcome Sanger Institute, a major genome research center in Hinxton, U.K. Last year, whistleblowers privately accused Sanger of commercializing a gene chip without proper legal agreements with partner institutions and the consent of the hundreds of African people whose donated DNA was used to develop the chip. “What happened at Sanger was clearly unethical. Full stop,” says Jantina de Vries, a bioethicist at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, who has followed the dispute. Sanger’s troubles have mounted since the beginning of the dispute, which was first made public last month. The institute says it did not commercialize the chips or profit from them, but admits in a statement that its relationship with some African partners has been “disrupted.” Stellenbosch University in South Africa has demanded that Sanger return samples. In addition, one whistleblower says she was fired because of the controversy, and a large research team has left the institute and ended a plan to study the genomes of 100,000 Africans. <a href="https://medium.com/@dreamerkidsmatter/major-u-k-genetics-lab-accused-of-misusing-african-dna-republished-cfa5980bf06">Click Here</a>