By Kelly Rae Chi

In September, Steven Teutsch received word that the expert panel he chaired, which advised the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on how genetic technologies could be best integrated into health care, was to be abruptly disbanded in two weeks’ time.

“We didn’t anticipate the committee would end,” says Teutsch, chief science officer of the Los Angeles County Health Department. “We were a bit surprised, because we had planned to continue this work that we had started.”

Since its inception in 2002, the US Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health and Society (SACGHS) helped push passage of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, which bars employers and health insurers from discriminating against individuals on the basis of their genetic information, and produced timely reports on gene patents and direct-to-consumer genetic testing, among other fractious topics. With the growing possibility of affordable whole-genome sequencing, many committee members and onlookers expected the panel to have an ongoing role in hashing out the clinical, ethical and legal implications of rapidly developing genomic technologies. But HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, stating that the SACGHS had addressed all its “major topics,” decided not to renew the committee’s charter beyond 23 September. (Click here to continue reading)