Faculty First Year Seminars 191BIO12 - The Social Life of Your DNA

Your DNA offers a chance to explore, discover and reconciliate with the past. Pieces of your DNA have come together for this moment from different ancestral places over time. With increasing accuracy your DNA offers mechanistic insight into your peculiar characteristics suggesting lifestyles and medical treatments. Your DNA is also being used today in ways that you may not wish. How do you want your DNA used? This course will examine the social life of DNA and the need for a new bioethics. We will visit research laboratories, genomics core facilities, computer centers and the library for important words on genetics and race from W.E.B. Dubois.

First year (Fr or Soph)