Risky Genes

Jessica Mozersky is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for the Integration of Genetic Healthcare Technologies (Penn CIGHT). She received her PhD in Anthropology from the interdisciplinary Institute of Human Genetics and Health at University College London. In 2011, she was selected to be a Visiting Researcher at the Brocher Foundation in Hermance, Switzerland. She is a founding member of an international comparative social science BRCA network, and has managed international multi-centre clinical trials for BRCA carriers and women at increased genetic risk of breast and ovarian cancer at University College London and King’s College London.

• Introduction 1. Setting the Scene: Ashkenazi Jews and Genetic Disease 2. The ‘Ashkenazi BRCA Mutations’ 3. Re-Thinking the Consequences of Medical Genetic Research 4. On Being Jewish 5. History, Memory and the BRCA Genes 6. Future Generations. Conclusion. Notes. References.

'Jessica Mozersky has written a valuable monograph that crosses the immense boundary between history, social science and culture on the one hand and molecular methods, genetic mutation testing and predictive testing on the other....it details vast amounts of information about the history of Ashkenazi Jews, their culture over centuries and the medical, societal and racial discrimination they have endured.''I learnt much that I would have found useful in my clinical and family contacts during the last four decades.' 'Mozersky's approach throughout is valuable and most educational. She starts by telling us what she intends to do, then what she has done with the results and apt discussion, and finally she summarises and draws wise conclusions. She obviously has covered in much depth the social science, historical and molecular genetic literature.'-Professor Sandy Raeburn, in Bionews, posted 28 Jan 2013