Introduction :
In our genomic age, race is increasingly used to analyze genetic and other scientific data. Despite the ascendance of race-based medical research and biotechnologies, people of color in the United States and globally continue to bear the burden of health inequities. This workshop gathers scholars from stellar institutions and many disciplines to examine how law, social science, medicine, and genomics scholars approach the utility of race in genetics-driven technological innovation. We will structure our discussion around four main themes: 1) the power and weaknesses of specific important examples of medical, genomic, and biotechnology studies, particularly those utilizing the collection and/or analysis of “big data;” 2) economic incentives for race-specific products; 3) the paradoxes of inclusion and difference, including how scientists may address racial inequities in research and health without validating specious biological categories, and 4) how these issues may lessen or intensify racial inequity in healthcare, including medical research. We will also investigate and evaluate future directions for medical research in this field as well as the grave political implications of increasing race consciousness in genomic research and technologies. We will illustrate the need for a biopolitical and transdisciplinary paradigm that is committed to our common humanity, our medical interdependence, and scientific rigor as the route to medical and social transformation.