Egenis seminar (hybrid), with Steve Sturdy (University of Edinburgh)

The value of genetic testing, 1960 to the present

Diagnostic and predictive testing for genetic factors in health and illness has expanded enormously since the 1960s: in volume, in the range of conditions tested for, and in the uses those tests serve. In this presentation, I set out to understand what kinds of value – including but not confined to financial value – genetic tests have delivered since the 1960s. Specifically, I use the concept of “regimes of value” (Appadurai) to chart how different kinds of genetic and genomic tests have been valued, at different times, by changing configurations of patients, clinicians, biomedical researchers, commercial investors, and government policy makers among others. By so doing, I seek to illuminate some of the key sociocultural factors that have encouraged the development of ever more powerful and sophisticated genetic testing technologies, from family pedigrees to whole-genome sequencing.

Date and Time: 30 November 2026, 15:15-17:00 GMT

Venue: Byrne House, Streatham Campus, University of Exeter

Online: via Zoom

Description supplied by the event organiser.