Abstract

The notion that developing countries must wait for the developed world to make advances in science and technology that they later import at great cost is being challenged. We have previously argued that developing countries can harness human genetic variation to benefit their populations and economies. Based on our empirical studies of large-scale population genotyping projects in Mexico, India and Thailand, we describe how these resources are being adopted to improve public health and create knowledge-based economies. A significant additional benefit is building the capacity for scientific research and internalizing advances in technology, whatever their source.

Author affiliations

1. Béatrice Séguin, Billie-Jo Hardy, Peter A. Singer and Abdallah S. Daar are at the McLaughlin–Rotman Centre for Global Health, Program on Life Sciences, Ethics and Policy, University Health Network/McLaughlin Centre for Molecular Medicine at University of Toronto, MaRS Centre, South Tower, Suite 406, 101 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5G 1L7, Canada.
2. Béatrice Séguin is also at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, 144 College Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3M2, Canada.
3. Billie-Jo Hardy, Peter A. Singer and Abdallah S. Daar are also at the Faculty of Medicine, Medical Sciences Building, 1 King's College Circle, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A8, Canada.

Correspondence to: Abdallah S. Daar^1,3 Email: a.daar@utoronto.ca

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