Ethical issues in human genomics research in developing countries

We explore ethical issues in three key areas: protecting the interests of research participants, regulation of international collaborative genomics research and protecting the interests of scientists in low income countries. With regard to participants, important challenges are raised about community consultation and consent. Genomics research raises ethical and governance issues about sample export and ownership, about the use of archived samples and about the complexity of reviewing such large international projects. In the context of protecting the interests of researchers in low income countries, we discuss aspects of data sharing and capacity building that need to be considered for sustainable and mutually beneficial collaborations.Many ethical issues are raised when genomics research is conducted on populations that are characterised by lower average income and literacy levels, such as the populations included in MalariaGEN. It is important that such issues are appropriately addressed in such research. Our experience suggests that the ethical issues in genomics research can best be identified, analysed and addressed where ethics is embedded in the design and implementation of such research projects.Recent years have seen an explosion of scientific interest in the use of human genomic variation to study common complex diseases. The hypothesis is that human genetic diversity can be used as a tool to study the causal mechanisms of disease. Examples include Genome-Wide Association studies (GWAS) and, more recently, projects that make use of next-generation sequencing. Over the past 5 years, GWAS have proven very valuable in identifying regions of the genome that affect resistance or susceptibility to a wide range of common diseases, although the method provides simply a starting point, and a range of other approaches will be required in future to fully characterise and understand the complex genetic determinants of human health and disease. To date, whilst many su