Genome institute opens behavioral, social branch

The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) has formed the Social and Behavioral Research Branch (SBRB) to develop ways to translate discoveries from the Human Genome Project into methods of health promotion and disease prevention, and to counsel patients coping with genetic disorders.

The new branch, announced Friday, is part of the NHGRI Division of Intramural Research and also will study the social, ethical and public policy effects of genomic research, the NHGRI said. Colleen McBride, a behavioral epidemiologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, will oversee the SBRB. She had been director of Duke’s cancer prevention, detection and control research program. Her work there has been aimed at developing and evaluating methods for smoking cessation and changing behaviors that increase risks of developing diseases.

Social and behavioral researchers are in an “exciting time” as they will be key in moving genomic discoveries into actual patient care and public health, McBride said in a statement about the new center. “The research landscape is wide open and research programs like SBRB will have unprecedented opportunities to do truly innovative research,” she said.

SBRB research will include four main areas:

— Testing communications strategies for informing people of their risks of developing genetic conditions;

— Developing and evaluating intervention methods focused on reducing risks of acquiring genetic diseases;

— Ways of using genomic discoveries in clinical practice;

— Understanding social, ethical and policy implications related to research about the genome.

The SBRB will consist of a behavioral genetics unit; a health communications unit; a genetic counseling service unit; a health promotion research section with a unit in that for spreading counseling methods; a community genetics research unit, and an ethics and social policy unit.

Besides leading the SBRB, McBride also will be in charge of developing the Social & Behavioral Science Center as part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). That center will aim to speed the progress of behavioral and social science research at the various NIH research programs. The NIH is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is comprised of 27 separate institutes and centers, including the NHGRI, focused on various aspects of health and related research. Founded in 1887, the NIH is based in Bethesda, Maryland. The NHGRI, in turn, led the NIH contribution to the Human Genome Project, and upon its completion in April of this year broadened its scope to continue research into practical applications of genomic research.