Conflating race and ancestry: Tracing decision points about population descriptors over the precision medicine research life course

Responding to calls for human genomics to shift away from the use of race, genomic investigators are coalescing around the possibility of using genetic ancestry. This shift has renewed questions about the use of social and genetic concepts of difference in precision medicine research (PMR). Drawing from qualitative data on five PMR projects, we illustrate negotiations within and between research teams as genomic investigators deliberate on the relevance of race and genetic ancestry for different analyses and contexts. We highlight how concepts of both social and genetic difference are embedded within and travel through research practices, and identify multiple points across the research life course at which conceptual slippage and conflation between race and genetic ancestry occur. We argue that mov-ing beyond race will require PMR investigators to confront the entrenched ways in which race is built into research practices and biomedical infrastructures.

Automated summary

This article discusses the possibility of using genetic ancestry instead of race in genomic studies, as well as the issues raised by the use of social and genetic concepts of difference in precision medicine research. Drawing from qualitative data analysis, the article illustrates the importance of race and genetic ancestry concepts in research practices, and identifies conceptual slippage and conflation between race and genetic ancestry at various stages of research. The article argues that moving beyond race requires addressing the entrenchment of race in research practices and biomedical infrastructures.