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Human Genome Diversity Project data use and implications for the governance of legacy genomic data

Nature Genetics volume 57, pages 2937–2941 (2025)Cite this article

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To inform deliberations around use of the Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP) and related legacy data, we conducted a literature review of HGDP-derived data use from 2010 to 2024. Our analysis suggests broad re-use, possibly inconsistent with the original consent understandings. We urge caution with use of those data and similar datasets of unclear provenance.

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Fig. 1: Publication counts.

Code availability

Source code available at: https://github.com/UW-GAC/HGDP_uses.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a tier 1 pilot grant from the University of Washington Population Health Initiative, as well as by partial matching funds from the University of Washington Departments of Bioethics & Humanities and Biostatistics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Sarah C. Nelson & Stephanie M. Gogarten

  2. Department of Bioethics and Humanities, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA, USA

    Jacklyn M. Dahlquist & Stephanie M. Fullerton

Authors
  1. Sarah C. Nelson
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  2. Stephanie M. Gogarten
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  3. Jacklyn M. Dahlquist
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  4. Stephanie M. Fullerton
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sarah C. Nelson.

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Competing interests

S.C.N., S.M.G. and S.M.F. are each involved in one or more NIH consortia that have actively debated HGDP usage. The authors have no financial conflicts of interest to declare.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Genetics thanks Katrina Claw, Robert Cook-Deegan and Lucas Rozell for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Results, Supplementary Tables 1 and 2 and Supplementary Figs. 1 and 2.

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Nelson, S.C., Gogarten, S.M., Dahlquist, J.M. et al. Human Genome Diversity Project data use and implications for the governance of legacy genomic data. Nat Genet 57, 2937–2941 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-025-02412-x

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